nm 





5f i \<C3 7 To se pU C. 

resolutions d<rl ve>raJ »V> ~*V><r 
(=l$w<M'*l Ass<r*y»V>lv wdicVi met 






^ 



J 




Glass L Lh ¥ f _ 
Book I, O & ^T" 4*. 



SPEECH 



SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 



DELIVERED IN THE 



WHICH MET IN DETROIT IN MAY LAST 



JOSEPH C. STILES. 



MARK H. NEWMAN & CO., 199 BROADWAY. 



1850. 


















JOHN A. GRAY, PKINTEE, 

79 Fulton, corner of Gold St. I 









To the Rev. J. C. Stiles : 

Dear Sir : — The undersigned, having listened with deep interest and gratifica- 
tion to your argument upon the Slavery question, delivered before the General 
Assembly at its late session in Detroit, respectfully request that you will, at your 
earliest convenience, prepare a report of it for publication, with any such abbre- 
viation or expansion of the several parts as may suit your own pleasure. 
May 30, 1850. 



Chas. H. Read, 
William Sterling, 
David H. Riddle, 
Clifford S. Arms, 
J. Henry Clark, 
David Malin, 
Geo. F. Wiswell, 
Geo. Duffield, Jr., 
Charles Starr, 



Geo. Duffield, 
Erskine Mason, 
Joseph F. Tuttle, 
S. M. Gould, 
A. C. Lathrop, 
J. G. Wilson, 
David Dobie, 
E. D. Willis, 
J. Holmes Agnew. 



Dear Brethren : — Absence from home, feeble health, and multiplied engage- 
ments, have prevented my earlier compliance with your kind request. I have 
made liberal use, you perceive, of its latitude, especially in writing out certain 
arguments which were only numbered or named during the delivery of the residue. 
With great respect, brethren, 

I am yours, 

JOS. C. STILES. 

Messieurs Chas. H. Read, Wm. Sterling, and others. 



F>ig©^ 



Mr. Moderator : — On this long-vexed question, at this 
very moment menacing more than ever the rupture of Church 
and State, permit me to express my strong conviction that he 
argues most cogently who argues most kindly. May I be 
assisted to remember this. I shall express myself with the 
earnestness of fresh investigation, but I beseech my brethren 
to interpret all my language as uttered under the conviction 
of ultimate fallibility, whatever may be the seeming confi- 
dence of the moment. Especially does it become me to 
cherish this remembrance when I call to mind that the South 
is the land of my birth, and the home of my kindred, and 
may well therefore be exerting a present influence over my 
judgment of which I am altogether unconscious. 

The Memorialists complain of the Southern Church, and 
charge her, not so much with slave-making, nor with slave- 
trading, as with sla.ve-holdi?ig. They direct the attention of 
the Assemby to the character of this institution, and inquire 
concerning the method of its expulsion from the Presbyterian 
Body. 

Two solemn questions demand our investigation : 

What is the moral character of slaveiioldixg ? 
What the duties of the parties concerned 2 

first.— the moral character of slaveholding. 

It need hardly be stated that lie who exerts ;i compulsory 
authority over a human being as a master, who holds a fellow- 
man in the relation of involuntary servitude, is the party im- 
plicated in the charge. 

Let it be premised that in this investigation we are bound 
1 



6 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

to regard slaveholding in its most favorable aspect. Who 
are a before us ? The Southern Public at large? No, sir ! We 
have nothing to do with it. It is the membership and the 
ministry of the Presbyterian Church who stand accused. 
They are our brethren and uncondemned. We are bound 
therefore in Christian justice to consider them as carrying out 
this relation with all the good feeling and principle of which 
its nature will admit. 

The Memorialists affirm that slaveholding is sin. 

If it is simply intended that slaveholding, in the language 
of the Majority Report, " leads to sin," I am prepared to 
yield my hearty assent. In the master, slaveholding insen- 
sibly tends to breed indolence, pride, impatience, irritability, 
hard-heartedness, and arbitrary temper. It tends to make 
the servant discontented, deceitful, and dishonest ; to break 
down every high motive to general industry, as well as to all 
intellectual and moral culture. It saps the energies of a 
community, discourages personal enterprise, and perils uni- 
versal peace. Yet while the moral bearings of slaveholding 
do, in general, lie in this direction, it should be conceded that 
this relation does frequently present the most amiable testi- 
monies of mutual affection and fidelity, on the part of master 
and servant. Nay ! strange as it may seem, I am persuaded 
that there exists more love and confidence between the two 
races at the South than at the North. 

The sinful tendency of slaveholding, however, is not all that 
our brethren would express by the language employed. They 
charge that slaveholding is sin per se, sin in itself, nothing but 
sin. They insist that he who holds this relation for a moment, 
thereby sins ; that every act of a master's authority over his 
servant is an act of oppression ; in fine, that there is no law 
from heaven applicable to this relation but the law of imme- 
diate abolition. This, in general, will be conceded to be a 
fair statement of the views of the Memorialists. 

Mr. Moderator, this method of expression I am not 
prepared to adopt, and must beg leave respectfully to say, 
that in my judgment, the proposition which affirms that slave- 
holding is essentially sinful is overthrown, first, by a simple 



DELIVERED IK THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 7 

statement of the facts in the case, and again by a just view of 
every argument adduced to support it. 

First. Statement of the case. 

Slaveholding is an existing relation between man and man. 
We hold it true of human relations, that there are three grand 
moral grades : one purely virtuous, another purely vicious, 
and a third of a compound nature. 

A relation perfectly virtuous is marked by the five following 
criteria: — 1. It is directly planned by God for the good of 
man. 2. Its moral bearings are decidedly salutary. 3. Chris- 
tianity can, and does, coalesce with it, i. e., it acts in and 
through it. 4. Christianity can, and does, regulate it. 5. 
Christianity will but improve it to the close of time. The 
relations of parent and child, of husband and wife, illustrate 
this class. 

The characteristics of a relation perfectly sinful are the fol- 
lowing : — 1. It is expressly forbidden by God. 2. Its moral 
bearings are decidedly injurious. 3. Christianity cannot co- 
alesce with it. 4. Christianity cannot regulate it. 5. Chris- 
tianity in its progress will surely do it away. Professional 
thieves — associated pirates illustrate this class. 

There exists also such a state of things in human society as 
a mixed relation. In the sense above described, it is neither 
purely virtuous on the one hand, nor purely vicious on the 
other, but partakes of the properties of both. Now under 
which of these categories shall we place the relation of slave- 
holding ? Certainly not under the first head. As clearly not 
under the second. Palpably under the third. Observe two 
facts. Slaveholding does not bear the first and capital mark 
either of relations perfectly virtuous, or of those perfectly 
vicious. It was not planned by God on the one hand, nei- 
ther is it expressly forbidden by God on the other. Again, 
slaveholding equally divides the four remaining character- 
istics of each class. It lacks two of the essential marks of 
relations perfectly pure, viz. : virtuous bearing, and perma- 
nency under the gospel ; but possesses the remaining two, 
viz. : co-existence with the gospel, (i. e., the master's exercise 
of compulsory authority may be a duty discharged,) and reg- 



8 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

ulati6n by it, (i. e., the gospel does lay down rules to guide 
the conduct both of the master and the slave.) In like man- 
ner slaveholding possesses two essential marks of relations 
perfectly sinful, viz. : vicious bearing, and disappearance un- 
der the progress of the gospel ; while it clearly lacks the two 
remaining essential properties of such relations — impossible 
coincidence with the gospel, and impossible regulation by it. 
I apprehend that this statement of truth few men will dis- 
pute. In general, mankind will promptly admit, first, that in 
moral character, human relations are threefold, good, bad, 
and mixed ; second, that slaveholding belongs to the third 
category, and not to the first, or second — in a word, that 
in morality, slaveholding stands between such relations as 
parent and child, and husband and wife, on the one hand, 
and such relations as banded thieves and murderers on the 
other. 

If these be facts, then without argument, upon a mere state- 
ment of the case, it appears that slaveholding, as a relation, 
is not sinful in itself. Consequently Southern brethren are 
not obnoxious to church discipline simply because they do not 
instantly adopt Abolition principles. 

In weighing this statement of the case, permit me to say, 
1st. Our Abolition brethren should not aggrieve us who hold 
more moderate principles, by the misstatement of our moral 
estimate of this relation. It does seem to us that by the law 
of unrighteous position, of inordinate feeling, in their ordinary 
statement of our sentiments our brethren are unconsciouslv 
impelled to wrong our principles in order to justify their own. 
We do not hold (as we are often said to do) that slaveholdino- 
is either a Bible institution or that it receives God's high sanc- 
tion. On the contrary, unlike every such institution, it was 
not planned by God, does not naturally tend to the good of 
society, and will assuredly fall before the gospel. It will 
break half their opposition, if our brethren will think and 
speak of our sentiments as we think and speak of the subject. 
2d. Our Abolition brethren should sustain us by the prompt 
admission that slaveholding is a relation which God in the 
Scriptures does certainly recognize and regulate. We hold 
that slaveholding, unlike relations purely sinful, is not ex- 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. V 

pressly prohibited by God, but does consist with the spirit, 
principle, and practice of Christianity, so far at least that 
God does certainly prescribe the duties which become the 
parties in this relation. It will throw our brethren largely 
into sympathy with us if they will bind themselves on every 
hand to concede this undeniable truth, viz. : If slavery is not a 
regular institution of the Bible, it is a scriplurally regulated 
relation amongst men. 

3d. If such are the moral characteristics of this relation that 
God neither sanctions it as an institution of his own, nor yet 
prohibits it as a relation sinful per se, then it is perfectly rea- 
sonable that a state of human society, so peculiar, should re- 
ceive a peculiar treatment at his hand. This it certainly does. 
On the one hand, he does not enjoin it upon men to form this 
relation ; on the other, he does not tear society to atoms by 
demanding its immediate abolition. On the contrary, wherever 
it exists, he imposes rules upon the parties which, if observed, 
will gradually work it off amongst the things that were, and 
meanwhile contribute to accomplish a grand providential end, 
by giving exercise to some of the most singular and beautiful 
shapes of the Christian principle. 

4th. In view of this statement, you may infer the response 
which should be given to an inquiry so frequently, solemnly, 
and confidently propounded in this Assembly : " Is slavery 
right, or is it wrong ?" If this inquiry respects the relation 
of slavery, we answer: It is neither wholly right, nor wholly 
wrong. There is right about it, and there is wrong about it. It 
has no such right as would sanction its enrollment on the cat- 
alogue of Bible institutions. It involves no such wrong as 
should constrain God to inflict upon it the anathemas directed 
against theft and murder. If the question respects this or 
that act of slaveholding, we are ready to reply : If the act is 
performed in obedience to any one of the rules which God 
has prescribed for the conduct of the master, like an\ other 
act of obedience to God, it is right. If the act is performed 
in violation of any such rule, like any other act of disobedi- 
ence to God, it is wrong. If the question respects the char- 
acter of this or that slaveholder, we answer : If the master 
in question holds his servant in any such spirit, or with any 



10 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

such aims, as permit and prompt him to obey the spirit of 
the rules enjoined upon the master in the Word of God, he is 
an innocent, a worthy master. If he holds him in an opposite 
spirit and for opposite ends, he is neither a worthy nor an 
innocent master. 

We repeat, therefore, upon an intelligent statement of the 
case at large, it is hard to conceive how any candid person 
could adjudge that the simple fact of holding slaves consti- 
tutes our Southern brethren such " prima facie sinners" as 
makes it the duty of this Assembly, as far as its authority 
extends, to enjoin forthwith the commencement of criminal 
process against them, throughout the length and breadth of 
the Church. 

If the statement of the case does not carry our brethren 
with us, then, Mr. Moderator, I respond : 

Second. In my judgment, the arguments advanced to 
establish the entire sinfulness of the relation of master and 
servant, fairly examined, disprove the proposition which 

THEY WOULD SET UP. 

The reasons advanced by opposing brethren on this floor, 
may be grouped under the five following heads : — 

I. The Liberty Argument 

May be stated thus : God has made every man so far free, that 
no one man has a. natural right to exercise compulsory authority 
over another. The master does exercise such authority ; therefore 
he sins. The defect of the argument lies in the erroneous 
statement of the major proposition. The fact is, the negation 
of a natural right of control over others is not absolute but 
qualified. The argument, you observe, requires the absolute 
form of statement, viz. : that every exercise of compulsory 
authority is a violation of natural right. Inordinate feeling, I 
apprehend, is the parent of this error. By this phrase — inordi- 
nate feeling — I mean such a state of mind as cannot justify 
itself by the facts of the case, and therefore unconsciously 
forces the intellect to sustain its extravagance, by one of two 
processes — either by incorporating with the subject elevating 
properties which do not belong to it, or by separating from it 



DELIVERED IX THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 11 

depreciating circumstances which do attach to it. Now 
inordinate sympathy with the supposed wrongs of the slave — how 
readily it rises, and when roused how impetuously it heave s 
to inflict some palpable and flagrant condemnation upon the 
offender ! How shall this be clone ? The fact is, the face of 
society presents a diversified catalogue of cases wherein one 
man exercises compulsory control over another, and thus 
countenances the right of the master. To sustain itself, inor- 
dinate anti-slavery excitement boldly strikes off the whole 
series of qualifying circumstances, and states the case abso- 
lutely. But clearly in this shape it is a misstatement. Who 
questions the rightful authority of the parent over the child, 
the guardian over the ward, the principal over the apprentice, 
the keeper over the lunatic, the jailor over the convict, and 
the governor over the subject ? The Liberty argument, 3'ou 
perceive, is a failure. God has not made man so free that no 
one man has a right to exercise a compulsory authority over 
another. The statement must be qualified, and when you 
qualify it properly, you will find that it gives a stronger coun- 
tenance to this disputed relation than would at first be im- 
agined. 

I am prepared now to affirm, that the doctrine of Human 
Rights, properly understood, rather establishes the master's 
authority over the servant. I am free to concede, I know no 
direct right of the master. Where shall we find the basis of 
such a right ? Not in any such inferior physical and intellec- 
tual structure of the African as indicates God's purpose to 
subject him to the permanent dominion of his superior neigh- 
bor ; not in that original curse of God which consigned the 
descendants of Canaan to eternal servitude to the posterity of 
his brethren ; not in the fact that the forfeiture of the captive's 
life on the battle-field works a forfeiture of his own liberty 
and that of his posterity for ever ; not in the payment of a 
valuable consideration for the services of the slave ; not in 
the authority of the law to convert him into a chattel ; nol in 
the custom of good men to treat him thus, and call it right ; 
not in your inability to discover what advantage could accrue 
to the slave from immediate abolition. No ! Mr. Moderator ! 
every such basis of the master's claim I utterly discard. 



12 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

Where then shall we find in nature a competent foundation 
for the power which the master exercises ? We shall find it,, 
I apprehend, largely in the shape of an obligation upon the 
master, resulting from a natural right in the person of the 
slave. 

Human rights I take to be summarily three. 1st. The right 
of existence. Life is the gift of God, and operates a right of 
existence against all save Him who bestows it. This right in- 
volves a reasonable use of all the faculties and powers of the 
subject. 2d. A right of happiness. The Creator has surrounded 
man with every object suited to refresh the desires of his na- 
ture, and thus invests him with a right of indulgence, a right of 
happiness. 3d. A right of supervision. God, in creation and 
providence, frequently places man in a state of dependence 
wherein the enjoyment of his natural rights can never be 
reached without progressive development, under competent 
supervision. This indicates a right of supervision. Such a 
right is universally felt to result from the coincidence of three 
things. Let there exist an incapacity of self-government, which 
renders its exercise mischievous to the parties and to society, 
and lor which God in creation or providence has appointed a 
guardianship, and all men will feel that every such human 
being has a right to wise and kind supervision. A child by 
nature has no power of self-government. Left to self-direc- 
tion, a child will surely injure itself and all about it. God in 
the constitution of things has made provision for its necessity 
in the parental relation. Were there no other basis than this, 
all men would feel that the child was entitled to supervision 
at the hand of his parent. There results, of course, to the 
parent, a right of authority over the child. So upon the death 
of the parent, and the legal appointment of a guardian, all 
men feel the right of supervision on the one side, and of con- 
trol on the other. So also in the case of the apprentice, of 
the lunatic, of the convict, and of the subject. In each of 
these cases there is for the time bein^ a natural or moral in- 
competency of self-government ; in each case, self-govern- 
ment exercised would seriously damage the subject and the 
community ; and in each case God has indicated a governing 
superior. Now it would seem impossible for the human 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 13 

mind to withhold its assent from this truth, viz. : that in each 
of these cases, these three things constitute a clear right in 
the inferior to kind and wise management, and consequently 
confer an indisputable authority on the suoerior to exercise 
such control. 

I hold now, Mr. Moderator, that these three things are 
equally applicable to the case in hand. 1st. The slave is in- 
capable of self-government. As a general remark who doubts 
this ? 2d. The sudden release of the slave from the accus- 
tomed direction of the master, would produce irreparable 
mischiefs to himself and to society. Who questions this ? 
3d. God has pointed to the party who is to exercise control 
over him. This too is undeniable. Now as in each of the 
other cases, so in this, these three circumstances lay the basis 
of a right of supervision on the part of the servant, and of 
course, of control on the part of the master. Dispute this posi- 
tion ; carry out your principle. The children of this generation 
rise up in mass, assert that God made them as free as their 
parents, demand immediate absolution from all authority, and 
set out at once to exercise unrestricted self-government. Does 
not every eye see, that the child's ignorance of himself, of 
those who lie in wait to destroy, of the consequences of rio-ht 
and wrong conduct, &c, &c, — his utter incapacity to 
support, instruct, direct, or defend himself, — in a word, 
his incessant, invisible, unavoidable temptations to an indolent 
and profligate life, would make enlargement from parental 
control the severest curse which could be inflicted upon him- 
self and society, and for this reason, the most unrighteous act 
the parent could perform ? Mark the analogy in the case of 
the slave and that of the child. 1st. There is in the frame- 
work of society an existing practical guardianship. 2d. The 
slave is just as incompetent to guide, support, and protect 
himself; just as much exposed to indolence, sensuality and 
imposition ; and just as certain, freed from the master's super- 
vision, to inflict upon himself and society the most disquieting 
and outrageous mischiefs. Now would it be right to cast the 
reins upon his neck and turn him loose, — right to himself, — 
right to community ? Above all things, I ask, what does the 
child, what does the slave need ? Surely, wise and kind su- 



14 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

pervision, until he can be educated to take care of himself, to 
enjoy his liberty. This is a boon of which he stands in per- 
ishing need. By the law of love, therefore, it is duty not to 
withhold this supervision and leave him to perish, but in ef- 
ficient wisdom and philanthropy to exercise it. 

I hold, Mr. Moderator, that this is by far the most exalted, 
nay, the only perfect law of Human Rights. In the language 
of the Majority Report, " The laws of guardianship" and " the 
demands of humanity'''' clothe it with an impregnable endorse- 
ment. Deny this view of the subject, and the end of natural 
liberty is denied to one half of the human family. Carry out 
this doctrine faithfully, and all our brethren who are now in- 
competent to enjoy their natural rights are put under a benign 
supervision, which provides the best present substitute for 
the privation, and secures the ultimate beneficial possession 
of their liberties at the earliest period. 

In weighing this view of the Liberty argument, should my 
brother object, 1st, That the parental relation is not slavery, 
the relation of guardian and ward is not slavery, of the luna- 
tic and his keeper is not slavery, &c. &c, — I answer, the 
argument asserts no such thing. There are differences, of 
course, in different objects. The argument simply inquires, 
first, whether there is not an agreement in three certain things ; 
and second, whether those three things do not lay the basis 
of a right of supervision, on the one hand, and of control on 
the other. 

2d. That masters at the South do not hold their slaves by 
any such benignant lien as my doctrine supports ; — I admit 
the fact that very many do not. And here let me say, that in 
the sequel I hope to secure as frank an admission on his part, 
that the number of masters who do hold some such views on 
this subject, is vastly greater than he had hitherto supposed. 

3d. Should he object again, that my doctrine of natural 
rights does not sustain the doctrine of eternal servitude, I 
readily grant it, and am free for one to say, that I hold no 
such doctrine. And now I trust that my objecting brother 
will be as prompt to concede, that the view presented cer- 
tainly does overthrow his doctrine of sin per-se, since his prin- 
ciple imperatively demands immediate abolition, whereas 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 15 

mine demonstrates in the master an indisputable authority for 
the time being. 

The Liberty argument ! I put it to you, Mr. Moderator, 
whether it does not fight against its author ? 

II. Scripture Argument. 

Mr. Moderator : How does Scripture teach that slaveholding 
is sin ? Where is the text? It is my deep conviction, sir, that 
almost as invariably as a religious assembly has entered upon 
a formal discussion of the question before this house, many a 
sober inquirer after truth has been impressed with profound 
surprise by two things : The readiness of our Abolition bre- 
thren to deal out their abhorrence of the man who would 
prostitute the Scriptures to the abetting of any doctrine 
on this subject save that of abolition, and yet the extreme 
reluctance with which they themselves come square up 
to the Scriptures. Mr. Moderator, I am sensible of no in- 
consideration when I bear this testimony — that in all the 
discussions I ever remember to have heard on this subject, 
private or public, this has appeared to me in general a char- 
acteristic feature : Few who hold extreme doctrines attempt 
a Scripture argument, and those who do rarely reach the 
Word of God. Nor can I deny, sir, that our present debate 
would seem to have moved along thus far in very good keep- 
ing with this description. One of our excellent brethren in 
his Scriptural discussion avers that slavery in its moral 
bearings is a violation of the governmental system of the 
Bible. This system develops the intelligence, the morality, 
the dignity, the liberty, and the felicity of man ; but slavery 
is unfriendly to such results. Another, in his Scriptural 
argument, affirms that, in legal interpretation, we are to have 
decisive reference to the grand spirit and principle of the 
law ; and all seeming exceptions should be disposed of, if 
possible, so as not to violate this radical characteristic. Now 
since the spirit and principle of Scripture law is love, slavery 
must of course be a violation of it. I have stated the sub- 
stance of the views of the speakers to the best of my recollec- 
tion ; and if these brethren came nearer to the Scriptures, or 
any others approached as closely, I do not remember it. Why 



16 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

is it that complainants seeking to establish a charge of sin 
seem so strangely compelled to keep at arm's length from 
God's Word, the only standard of sin? Let not my brethren 
be displeased when I express my judgment that it had been 
strange indeed if these good men had made freer use of Holy 
Writ. I believe it to be true, Mr. Moderator, that the Scrip- 
tural argument generally advanced to support the doctrine of 
immediate abolition, sifted to its foundations, will be found 
to be strictly aw^-scriptural. In its capital features, I hold it 
to be precisely that method of reasoning which sets aside the 
Bible and lets in all heresy. It is, in one word, neither more 
nor less than a surrender of the Divine declaration to human 
deduction. Scripture says, " The Lord our God is one 
Lord." Therefore, says human reason, God is not Three! But 
God himself advances, and declares, I am " Father, Son, 
and Holy Ghost." What does that man who objects still? 
He surrenders the second Divine declaration to his own de- 
duction from the first, and becomes a Unitarian. Scripture 
says, " God is Love" Then, says human reason, God will 
never destroy His own creature in hell for ever. But God re- 
sponds, " Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." 
What now ? Why, he who objects still, discards the Divine 
declaration and stands upon his own deduction, and becomes 
a Universalist. Scripture says, " God works in man to will." 
Then, says human reason, " Man is not free." But God adds, 
"Work out your salvation." And yet the reasoner objects 
still. Clearly then he gives more credit to the inference of his 
own judgment than to the direct declaration of the God of truth, 
and thus becomes a Fatalist. So exactly in the case in hand. 
Scripture says God's law is love and justice, and by a 
thousand texts commands evey man to be equitable and be- 
nign in the treatment of his neighbor. "Therefore," say our 
brethren, "in view of this great law of justice and mercy, no 
man can hold a slave and please God." But stay; God him- 
self advances, and responds, "Ye masters, while ye stand 
over your servants, do this and that unto them, and you will 
please me." I ask my brethren, first, whether this is not the 
clear voice of the New Testament ? I ask again, if they still 
insist that he who holds a slave, do what he may, sins against 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 17 

God, whether they do not place more reliance upon their 
own judgment than upon God's knowledge ? Whether they 
do not sacrifice God's teaching to their own reasoning ? If 
they do, then the Scripture argument of Abolitionism is anti- 
scriptural. 

I know of but two classes of texts emplo} T ed by opposing 
brethren. The first is 'positive, and may be summed up in 
the second table of the law : " Thou shalt love thy neighbor 
as thyself." There is perhaps no one word of Scripture 
quoted with more confidence on this subject than this form 
of the general commandment: " Do unto others as ye would 
have others do unto you." One of our brethren, doubtless in 
allusion to this passage, thus expresses himself: " My objec- 
tion to slavery is this, I do not want to be a slave." Had 
the Saviour said, " Do unto others in their circumstances as 
you would have them do unto you in yours,'''' the passage 
would prove the doctrine it is brought to establish, but the world 
would lose far more than the slave would gain. Such an in- 
terpretation destroys all the wisdom and philanthropy of this 
noble text.' This word of Jesus Christ rather requires us to 
do unto others in their circumstances as we would have fliem 
do unto us were we in the same. As I am, like my brother, I 
do not desire to be a slave. But were I in the place of the 
slave, — on the one hand destitute of all competent capacity to 
support, protect, or guide myself j on the other, subjected to 
the authority of a superior, who managed me largely that he 
might ultimately develop my power to serve God, man, and 
myself to higher advantage, — then lam prepared to say I would 
desire to be a slave. This whole class of passages therefore, 
properly interpreted, sustains the relation as I have attempted 
to explain it. 

The second class is negative, and is summed up in this 
sentiment: "Thou shalt not oppress thy neighbor." The 
power of this class of passages is destroyed by the applica- 
tion of a well-known rule of interpretation, viz.: General laws 
are always to give way to Particular laws. The .reason is 
obvious. You reach the will of the legislator more surely 
through his own language, expressed in the Particular law, 
than you do through your inference concerning his will, drawn 
2 



18 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

from his words in the General law. In the formation of a 
General law, the eye of the legislator passes over a large field 
of particulars, and without resting on any one of them for a 
moment, employs itself in comparing this general truth with 
other general truths, that he may mark their distinguishing 
features. Now it is only through an interpreter's inference 
that you cover any particular case by the General law. 
Whenever therefore the legislator himself takes up any partic- 
ular case and expresses himself thereupon, most surely you 
are not now to go back to your inferences from the General 
law. You have express evidence of his will. General laws 
of course always find their interpretation in the special laws 
enacted upon the same subject. Now, Mr. Moderator, I call 
upon my brethren to say whether God in the New Testament 
does not treat of this precise relation of master and servant ; 
whether he does not in his own language bring up a great 
variety of supposed acts on the part of the master to the slave 
and of the slave to the master ; whether he does not ex- 
plicitly express himself touching his own estimate of the moral 
character of these acts? Mr. Moderator, through you I do 
beseech my brethren to give me an explicit response to this 
question : So far from announcing to men that any act of a 
master, as such, to a servant, as such, is an act of oppression, 
does not God on the contrary most perspicuously and repeat- 
edly affirm that such and such acts of the master are what he 
would have him. do — are his duty — are what God himself 
deems not oppressive, but absolutely right to his fellow-men ? 
What then, sir, have we, under law, to do with our inferences of 
oppression, when the Rider himself instructs us that these very 
miscalled acts of oppression are but duty commanded, the 
very wisest, kindest, and best acts in the circumstances the 
party can perform ; the very acts which He, the Maker, calls 
for? I put it to you, Mr. Moderator, whether the Scripture 
testimony relied upon to prove the doctrine of sin per se is 
not an eminent failure ? 

You are prepared now to have me advance and say, that 
in my judgment the Scriptures, properly interpreted, destroy 
the doctrine of sin per se in the very manner in which it is 
held to establish it. 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 19 

Positively. It is an undeniable truth that God in the Old 
Testament authorizes the Jew to sustain the relation of a 
master to his heathen slave. 

In the 25th chapter of Leviticus, God contrasts at length 
two classes of servants — Jewish and heathen. He ordains 
that they occupy different grades. The Jewish servant is 
to receive the treatment of an hired servant. "As an hired 
servant he shall be with thee." The heathen servant is to 
receive the treatment of a slave. "Thy bondmen and thy 
bondmaids shall be of the heathen." Two points of contrast 
are clearly laid down. First, the Jewish servant was redeem- 
able by himself or his kinsmen at any time. " One of his 
brethren may redeem him, or if he be able he may redeem 
himself." The heathen servant was not redeemable. "They 
shall be your possession." Second, the Jewish servant must 
be released at the jubilee. " He shall go out in the year of 
jubilee, both he and his children with him." The heathen 
servant was not to be released at the jubilee. " Ye shall 
take them as an inheritance for your children after you." 

I readily admit that God in the laws of Moses furnishes 
various indications of his compassion toward the slave, and 
some signs of his unwillingness to look with permanent favor 
upon this institution ; and yet, as a general regulation for the 
time being, it is an indisputable fact that God does here rec- 
ognize and authorize the relation of master and bondman. 
" They shall be your bondmen for ever." 

Now the question arises : Can the holding of a divinely- 
authorized relation be a sin per se? Can obedience and sin 
co-exist ? My brother responds, " There are Christian si/i nert 
as well as other sinners." Mr. Moderator, my brother's mind 
in this language does not come within sight of the argument. 
That Christianity, that obedience to God, can co-exist with sin 
in the man everybody knows; but this is heaven-wide of the 
case. Can Christianity co-exist with sin in the act ? That is 
the point. Can obedience make up a part of sin ? Yon >.i\ 
that slaveholding is an act of sin. The Word of God here 
shows you that slaves were held of old in obedience to a divine 
regulation. In what part of an act of idolatry or an aet ,.t 
murder can you put obedience to God ? If I mistake not, the 



20 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

teaching is — " These are contrary the one to the other." 
If then obedience is not disobedience, and men held slaves of 
old in obedience to Old Testament teaching, the holding of a 
slave is not an act of sin. 

Again : It is a Scripture fact that the New Testament rec- 
ognizes the relation of master and servant, and imposes recip- 
rocal duties upon the parties. Who questions this fact '? It 
will not be disputed that the Scriptures on the one hand com- 
mand the servant, in view of the master's claims, to " obey," 
to "honor," and to "be subject" to him; "not despising 
him," " not answering him back," not " purloining from him," 
&c. ; on the other, that they enjoin it upon masters, in view 
of the claims of the servant, to "do the same things unto 
them," especially to " give unto them that which is just and 
equal," to " forbear threatening," and to remember in all 
their treatment of their slaves that they too " have a Master 
in heaven." 

The argument upheld by this unquestionable Scripture 
fact may be thus stated : What God commands man to do is 
not sin. God commands man to do the duties of a master; 
therefore the man who discharges the prescribed duties of a 
master does not sin. Against what point will you drive your 
objection to this argument ? Against the major proposition ? 
Surely not. Who dares to say what God commands it is 
sin to do? Against the minor proposition? Surely not. 
Who will venture to affirm that God does not lay commands 
upon the master touching his obligation to his servant? 
Against the conclusion ? Surely not. For if he who follows 
God's commands is not a sinner, then the master who follows 
God's commands does not sin. What will my brethren do 
with this argument ? How can the doctrine of sin per se and 
the doctrine of the New Testament stand together ? To hold 
a slave is a sin in itself. Yet God tells the master how to 
hold his slave, and what to do with him. Can God tell a 
creature how to commit sin ? Can a sin-hating God make 
rules to direct the idolater, the murderer, the thief, in the 
work they do? Can a sovereign God give rules to a subject 
tobreak his own law? How preposterous the position of our 
brethren ! The whole controversy comes to this : If God has 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 21 

a right to give laws to his creatures, the holding of slaves 
is not sin per se. 

Negatively. Let it be premised that it lies at the basis of 
every word of God to his creatures, that whatever is sin God 
requires every soul to abandon instantly. The doctrine of 
our brethren therefore, the doctrine of si?i-in-itsclf, carries to 
every slaveholder God's command of immediate abolition^ 
Now, the Bible, so far from requiring the instantaneous dis- 
ruption of the tie between master and servant, contemplates it* 
continuance. You may see this truth in the absence of all 
evidence of its divine discontinuance. Had Christianity de- 
manded the immediate abolition of this venerable, deep-si sated, 
all-pervading feature of the frame-work of ancient society, 
there must have sprung up a sudden, prodigious, and perilous 
domestic and political agitation, which would have blazed 
out upon every record which descended to us from primitive 
times. But we have not one reliable word of any such revolu- 
tion, either in Scripture precept or narration, or in ecclesias- 
tical or profane history. You may see it in tin- presence of 
everything which would naturally indicate the fact that 
Christianity did not abrogate this relation. Here are God's 
commands to the parties respectively. Tell me, how can a 
master or a servant do his duty except through the existence 
of the relation itself? Here is the palpable tenor of Scrip- 
ture teaching. More than once on the holy page, God 
states, seriatim, the duties of parent and child, the duties of 
husband and wife, and the duties of master and servant. 
When God states the duties of parents and children, be means 
surely that the parties are to go forward dischi rging the 
same. So when God prescribes the duties of husband and 
wife, he requires the parties to go on and perform them. This 
you admit. Now when God addresses the same species of 
commands to master and servant, surely he intends thai thej 
too shall proceed to do as he has commanded, i. c, be pal- 
pably contemplates the continuance, nol the disruption of the 
relation. Here, too, is the obvious force of Bible terms and 
phrases. Servants are more than once commanded to obey 
their masters "in all things." The multitude and diversity 
of acts of obedience which make up the sum total of a ser- 



22 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

vant's duty cannot be crowded into one moment. To meet 
this necessity, therefore, the relation must continue. The 
master too is commanded to do the " same things " to his 
servant ; and these same things are not one or two acts of 
duty, but a multitude, and of course demand the preserva- 
tion of the relation for the time being. " Let every man," 
says the apostle, " abide in the same calling wherein he is 
called." Conversion does not require a change in a man's 
natural, social, or civil obligations. Abide contented in your 
condition, whether married or single, whether bond or free. 
"Art thou called being a servant ? Care not for it." Continue 
contented in your relation to your earthly master, for you are 
the Lord's freeman. This language clearly teaches the valid 
existence of the relation after the conversion of the servant ; 
while Paul's last word utterly demolishes the allegation that 
primitive Christianity wrought the immediate abolition of this 
institution : "But if thou mayest he madefree, use it rather." Cer- 
tainly, the apostle says, " You are a slave. Well ! remain 
contented in your calling, and do your duty. Should it hap- 
pen however that Providence opens a way whereby you may 
acquire your freedom, this on the whole is a better state ; 
avail yourself of it." Finally, here is the historical fact of 
the recognized existence and validity of this relation naturally 
running along the sacred record through a continuous period. 
In the year of our Lord 59, Paul addresses his bond brethren 
in the church of Corinth. In 60, Peter sends his instructions 
to the servants scattered through the churches of Asia Minor. 
In 64, Paul calls up the attention of those who belong to the 
churches of Ephesus, Colosse, and Philippi. And in 65, Paul 
educates Timothy and Titus in the proper method of teach- 
ing and exhorting the respective parties to this relation. 

In view of this evidence, what intelligent mind can believe 
for a moment that Christianity as administered by the apostles 
did actually put to death the relation of master and servant, 
as an institution too sinful to breathe under its eye? Such 
a stroke had jarred the world, and its tremors had been felt 
to this day, at least in the records which reach us from earlier 
times. But where is the testimony to any such occurrence? 
On the contrary, there on the face of the sacred record stands 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 23 

acknowledged, regulated slavery. God's commands to the 
parties presuppose the existence of the relation, else the com- 
mands themselves would not have been delivered ; and its 
valid continuance, else the created duties could not be dis- 
charged. God's Word requires the parties to abide in the re- 
lation in which Christianity finds them, describes a continu- 
ous obligation on both sides, and speaks of the dissolution of 
the relation only as a possible occurrence ; while God's 
ministers from church to church, and from year to year, are 
found most solemnly dealing with master and servant as 
variously bound to each other and deeply responsible to God. 

Thus, if I have rightly understood the Word of God, there 
is no testimony upon its pages, either positive or negative, that 
slaveholding is sin per se ; but ample evidence, both negative 
and positive, that the holding of a slave is not of necessity a 
sin. 

I put it to you, Mr. Moderator, whether the Scripture ar- 
gument of our brethren, fairly investigated, like the argument 
from Natural Liberty, does not recoil upon its author and over- 
throw the doctrine it was enlisted to establish ? 

III. The Historical Argument. 

Our brethren contend that the divine imposition of recipro- 
cal duties upon master and servant, in the New Testament, 
does not protect slaveholding from the charge of sin per se, 
because, 

I. It is an historical fact that there were no slaves in the prim- 
itive Church; that the Greek terms translated in our version 
" servant," do not mean " slave," but freed-scrvant. 

I apprehend, Mr. Moderator, it will be no easy task to set 
aside the adverse testimony already elicited from the Scrip- 
tures in the discussion of previous topics. But let us examine 
this argument on its own merits. 

I affirm that the cardinal rules of interpretation indisputa- 
bly fix the current import of the disputed terms, i. e., the New- 
Testament " servant " was a slave. 

1st. Words are to be understood in their most known and 
usual signification. Consult every cotemporaneous Greek 



24 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

writer, every lexicographer, commentator and Biblical critic, 
and there would be assembled a harmonious mass of testi- 
mony in favor of the popular import of these terms, which 
would probably silence the most prejudiced opponent. 

2d. Words are to be defined by reference to their connection. 
Again, words are of course to be explained in view of their 
use in different passages. Still again, words are to be under- 
stood in reference to the nature of the subject about which they 
are employed. These three rules are identical in their appli- 
cation to the case in point. Group together all the predicates 
of the term " servant" in the New Testament, collect all the 
commands, prohibitions, and admonitions addressed to this 
person, and we shall find that the Scriptures seem to describe 
the state and character of the slave with great clearness, and 
to preseribe for it with great address. 

Every condition in life has its peculiar besetments. Those 
of the slave are strongly marked. 

The first peculiar temptation of the slave is, to serve from 
necessity only, and therefore without conscience toward God. 
His condition strongly tempts him to feel that in truth there is 
no moral obligation in the case ; no, not even to his Maker. 
Now the Scriptures see this, and multiply such injunctions as 
the following : " Servants, be obedient to them that are your 
masters according to the flesh, in singleness of heart as unto 
Christ." " As the servant of Christ, doing the will of God 
from the heart." " Doing service as to the Lord and not to 
men." Knowing that God will amply reward your fidelity. 

The second peculiar temptation of the slave is to serve from 
necessity only, and therefore without love to his master. His 
seeming to receive so small a benefit from his labors, natu- 
rally unites with other influences to indispose him to work 
with a kind and cheerful heart. The Scriptures see this, and 
meet the necessity of the case by imposing upon servants 
such commands as these : " Count your masters worthy of all 
honor ; despise them not, because they are brethren ; rather 
do them service, because they are faithful and beloved par- 
takers of the benefits " ; " Serve them in singleness of heart" ; 
" Please them in all things" ; " With good will doing service." 

The third peculiar temptation is this : He never serves 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 25 

when he can help it, and will only pretend to serve when this 
is necessary to secure him from the displeasure of his supe- 
rior. The Scriptures see this, and thus admonish the servant : 
" Obev not with eye-service." Mark here, first, lack of princi- 
ple. There is no conscience toward God, no love of his 
master, nothing to rouse him to labor until the eye of his mas- 
ter falls upon him. Again, fearfulness and pretense. The 
eye of the master starts him to serve, and always with an air 
as though he had not been idle. How strikingly does the 
slave fill out this description. Who that has lived in a slave- 
land does not instantly recall times and occasions without 
number or description, in which he has first seen the lounging 
slave, and then the instant motive power of the master's eye, 
at least upon his frame ? No wonder the Scriptures repeat 
the injunction, "not with eye-service.'''' Again, the Scriptures 
admonish servants to obey their masters, " not as mcn-plcas- 
ers." They seem to say, 'Do not feel that you have accom- 
plished every end if you have simply kept the man, the mas- 
ter, from being displeased with you.' He who is familiar 
with the practical operation of slavery, will not be surprised 
that the Scriptures repeat the injunction, "not as men-plcas- 
ers." 

The fourth peculiar temptation is this : The slave serves 
with his body when he must, and lets out the rebellion ofhis 
heart when he may. The Scriptures see this, and command 
servants, " Count your masters worthy of all honor." " Be 
subject to them with all fear." There is a profound respect 
indicated in this language which hardly befits any existing 
relation between freemen, but well becomes the more humble 
and dependent condition of the slave. The Scriptures add, 
"not ;i us wering again." Sound judgment, I apprehend, dis- 
covers some lack of propriety in the application of such a 
precept to the dignity and rights of a freeman, though a ser- 
vant; while it must appreciate its consummate importance to 
him who is the most dependent of all men. The Scriptures 
impose a deeper humiliation upon the servant, and command 
him to obey his master "with liar and trembling." That 
such an injunction should be addressed to a freeman is incon- 
ceivable ; even to him who occupies the most abject admissi- 



26 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

ble state among men it would seem to be a very strong pre- 
scription. But Scripture advances still one step further, and 
enjoins it upon the servant when " buffeted," and not " for 
your faults, to take it patiently" ; yes ! and go on to serve even 
" the froward." None other counsel than this can be ad- 
dressed to the slave in view of the necessities of his condition ; 
but to require a freeman when buffeted unrighteously to sub- 
mit to it with patience, and continue in the service of the 
froward, is what I judge no man interprets the Bible to 
teach. 

The last temptation of the slave is to feel that since his 
master will not pay him for his labor when he ought, he may 
pay himself when he can. I suspect it is naturally an under- 
ground public sentiment in every community of slaves, that 
there is no theft in taking from the master. Little pilfering, 
apart from the power of the gospel, will be very apt to prevail 
where slavery exists. The Scriptures see this and say, Obey 
your masters "7iot purloining."* 

By the rule of interpretation now under discussion, the dispu- 
ted word " servant " must find its definition in the nature of the 
subject which it is employed to express. We have the descrip- 
tion of the subject full before us in the Scripture. I affirm 
that herein the Bible describes the qualities and circumstan- 
ces of the slave, because, as we have seen, every appeal of the 
Scriptures speaks with singular application to the peculiari- 
ties of his character and condition. I affirm that the Bible 
does not describe the free servant, because there is no peculiar 
basis in his character or state for any one of all the Scriptural 
commands addressed to the servant. A freeman serves whom 
he chooses, as long as he chooses, and for what he chooses ; 
he is paid for his labor, and loses employment if he is not 
diligent, skilful, and respectful. There is nothing therefore in 
his condition which naturally impels him to serve either with- 
out conscience toward God or kindness toward man, or 

* I am not to be understood as giving a portraiture of slavery at large. For 
whatever be the evils of this institution, in our own country slaves are generally 
a happy people, and not greatly distinguished for immorality. I design here only 
to present those peculiar temptations to vice in the slave, which would most nat- 
urally attract the legislation of a moral governor, and thus furnish a key to the 
character addressed. 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 27 

which gives such power to the master's eye; nothing which 
peculiarly exposes him either to deception or discontent or 
dishonesty ; nothing that demands either a trembling service 
or abject submission to injurious treatment. 

3d. Another rule of interpretation requires us, when one leg 
of an antithesis is ascertained, to go to its opposite for the 
other. Of the Scriptural servant the apostle says : "If thou 
mayest be made free." What is the present state of that ser- 
vant who is to be made free ? It would seem rather hard to 
escape the blunt force of this passage, unless we could devise 
a process whereby a man already occupying a certain state 
might still be put into the same. Clearly, if at the time, the 
party was out of a state of freedom he was in a state of 
slavery. 

4th. Words are always to be understood with reference to 
the state of society in which they were spoken, its usages, 
prejudices, &c. Now two things, I apprehend, all parties 
admit : First, That the term servant, when literally employed 
by the tongue or pen of an apostle, always fell among a peo- 
ple where slavery prevailed. Again, the Greek terms trans- 
lated servant in the New Testament, in common parlance 
out of the Church, did always carry the idea of slavery. These 
facts suggest two instructive inquiries. Did there actually 
exist any considerable class of free domestics in that state of 
society ? If there did, would the apostles address them by 
terms universally applied to another and far more degraded 
caste ? Dares any white man at the South look a man of his 
own color in the face and call him " slave" and speak of his 
"master?" The usages and prejudices of all slaveholding 
society are dead against any such signification of the word. 

Finally, The opinions of the learned should always have 
weight with us. The uniform current of testimony from his- 
torians, general scholars, and Biblical critics, settles the fact 
beyond controversy, that there were slaves in the primitive 
Church. My brother from Virginia, adverting to tin- favora- 
ble bearing of American testimony on this subject, li.is re- 
minded us of the sentiments of two of our most distinguished 
scholars occupying very different positions in the ecclesiasti- 
cal world, Drs. Charming and Waijland. Of the mass of fa- 



28 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

vorable testimony beyond the waters, I will simply glance at 
the opinions of two still more eminent Biblical students. 
Lardner argues against the authenticity of the so-called 
"Apostolical Constitutions," because they provided such an 
unreasonable multitude of holidays for the slaves. To imagine 
that so serious an encroachment upon the rights of the master 
would have been tolerated for a moment in that state of so- 
ciety, he holds to be perfectly absurd. You see his opinion. 
Horne, in commenting upon 1 Tim. vi. 1, states the fact that 
one class of the Pharisees taught that the proselyte in becom- 
ing a Jew abandoned all his heathen relations, social, civil and 
natural. He supposes it probable that this party would ap- 
ply their doctrine to Christianity, and contends that the con- 
vert on entering the Christian Church left slavery behind him. 
He understands Paul in this passage to strike at this class of 
primitive Abolitionists when he taught this lesson : in order 
that blasphemy against the name of God and his doctrine 
might be averted, it is the duty of servants under the 3^oke 
to count their masters worthy of all honor, love and service. 
Nor did he hesitate to pronounce those early Abolitionists who 
" teach otherwise" ungodly, proud, ignorant, contentious, and 
mischievous to the last degree ; persons to be avoided on ac- 
count of their sentiments, spirit, and conduct. 

It does not appear to me, Mr. Moderator, that I have passed 
by any of the great ordinary rules for interpreting language, 
nor travelled far to find them, nor forced their application to 
the subject. It would be strange indeed if all this body of 
principles verily work the other way, and teach that a servant 
under the yoke is a freeman above it. 

II. But this historical argument finds a refuge in a second 
position. Admit the existence of slavery under the eye of the 
apostles, yet the peculiar abominations of our American system 
demand that the Church should instantly and indignantly rise 
up and pronounce it accursed of God. But what comparison 
is there between the modern and the ancient institution V By 
Roman law, slaves were held " pro nullis, pro mortuis, pro 
quadrupedibus." The master might force his slave to be- 
come a harlot, or a gladiator ; might chastise him without 
limit as to method, severity, or continuance ; might torture 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 29 

him at will for crime, caprice, or pleasure ; nay, might put 
him to death at any time, in any manner, for any purpose or 
for none. The distinctive Roman principle was this : That 
a slave could not be injured by his master. I venture to af- 
firm that there is not an inch of ground in these United States 
where any one of this catalogue of cruelties could be inflicted 
without awakening the instant vengeance both of law and 
public sentiment. When men in our day cut up and feed out 
their slaves to give their fish a richer flavor ; or sit at ease and 
enjoy themselves in the excruciating tortures by which the 
slave gives up life before their eyes ; or when the blood of 
hundreds in one sacrifice is shed upon the grave of a departed 
kinsman in some sort of sympathy with his ghost, — it will not 
then be in season to speak of the peculiar excesses of slavery 
in our day. 

I put it to j^ou, Mr. Moderator, whether this Historical 
argument does not share the fate of its predecessors ? If the 
apostles did verily regard slavery in the days of ancient Rome 
as a domestic relation which Christianity might regulate and 
Christians might fill, what right has any uninspired disciple 
of Jesus to pronounce this institution under the moderated fea- 
tures of our own day, such an insufferable sin against God as 
demands its instantaneous abolition, be the consequences 
what they may ? 

IV. The Progress Argument. 

I should have been gratified to hear some more distinct 
statement of the mode of reasoning relied upon under this 
head. From the discussions rather of the lobbies of this house 
than of the floor, as far as I have been able to understand 
the mind of my brethren, the sentiment seems to be this : An- 
cient language concerning slavery is inapplicable in our day, 
in view of the greater light of modern times. The argument, 
I apprehend, they would state thus: The divine withhold- 
ment of specific truth in ancient times left the sin of slavery 
uncondemned. The providential impartation of greater light 
in our day calls upon us to come out and condemn it. 

Permit me to inquire whether the introduction of this topic 
does not reduce the reasoner to an unwelcome alternative. It' 



30 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

his Scripture argument has foundations, and the Bible verily 
teaches that slaveholding is sin per se, then this argument 
fails. If the Progress argument has foundations, and Scripture 
has not furnished any definite light upon the subject, then the 
Scripture argument fails. Be this as it may, I invite your 
attention to two answers to the reasoning under this head. 

I. The argument has no foundations. The conclusion lacks 
a premise. It is not true that decisive light touching the char- 
acter of this institution was withheld from the primitive 
Church. 

1st. The end of my brother's argument would seem to for- 
bid this position. 

I admit that God does withhold truth on various topics, and 
for various reasons. For instance, when the mind is unpre- 
pared to receive it through lack of intellectual development. 
Paul would now lay down advanced principles of religion, 
but his slow-learning brethren are not able to bear the teach- 
ing, and he must needs still feed them with milk when they 
should be living upon stronger diet. So when there is a lack 
of moral preparation through prejudice. Jesus did not at first 
disclose to his disciples the exact dignity of his person, the 
manner of his death, his purposes touching the future relations 
of the Jews and Gentiles to his Church, &c. &c. Offenses, 
too of inferior criminality God does sometimes comparatively 
wink at for a season, which at a future time he fully exposes 
and condemns. I apprehend, however, that these offenses 
will always be found to be mala prohibita, and that there is 
not, in all God's revelation to man, any approximation to the 
fact which this argument assumes. Here is a case of sin per 
se, a case of the most flagrant enormity. God brings it up 
again and again in the Old Testament and in the New, but 
never, never to the close of the sacred canon reveals its true 
character, and actually ceases to speak to man leaving him 
to find out as best he can, that this whole thing is a stench in 
his nostrils, and that he expels the perpetrator from the fel- 
lowship of his people. I lay no great stress upon this point 
of evidence, yet I would respectfully ask my brother whether 
there is not something like a quarrel between the first neces- 
sary fact of his Progress argument, viz., that God of old with- 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 31 

held from man his judgment of the moral character of slavery, 
and the conclusion which he builds his argument to sustain, 
viz., that slaveholding in itself is an outrageous offense against 
God. 

2d. The Scriptures emphatically forbid it. 

What additional instructions upon this subject could have 
been reasonably expected in God's Word ? It cannot be 
denied that the institution of slavery is made the subject of 
deliberate and systematic regulation, both in the Old Testa- 
ment and in the New ; that in both, the relative duty of the 
respective parties, the motives by which they are to be actu- 
ated, the spirit they are to cultivate, the ends they are to 
seek, the temptations they are to avoid, the final account to 
which they are held, and the solemn retribution they must 
expect, are all stated and discussed with ordinary perspi- 
cuity. Now if the Progress argument is true, and God has 
withheld reasonable instructions concerning the character of 
this relation, on what topics, I ask, has God given us what 
might be termed a reasonable degree of information ? I ven- 
ture to affirm that the whole catalogue of social relations, hus- 
band and wife, parent and child, brother and sister, ruler and 
subject, pastor and people, &c, scarce furnishes a solitary in- 
stance of more perspicuous, definite, frequent, or extended 
Scripture teaching. One fact ever)' - eye accustomed to overlook 
the holy page will promptly recognize, namely, that this doctrine 
of master and servant is frequently brought up by holy wri- 
ters in immediate connection with the most clearly defined 
and important human relations, and not only treated as to 
general method precisely as they are, but not unfrequently 
with decidedly greater particularity and elaboration. 1 pul 
it to you, Mr. Moderator, whether this argument does not fail 
at its foundations? It sets out with the allegation thai God 
in the Scriptures has actually failed to give man due lighl as 
to his duty in the relation of master and servant ; an unrea- 
sonable allegation, by the way, since it charges God either 
with incapacity, for he has certainly made many efforts to 
convey such instruction, or with malignity, for he wilfully 
hides needed truth, and leaves man to wander unwarned in 
desperate sin. But if the world lias no righl to rise up and 



32 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

charge God with having wickedly left us in the dark touch- 
ing duty in the great relations of husband and wife, parent 
and child, ruler and subject, &c, then this Progress argument 
fails, and we need not that man should mend the perfect 
work of his Maker in this matter. 

II. It destroys the foundations of the Bible. You say, my 
brother, that God of old gave not to man by revelation ade- 
quate knowledge of the moral features of slavery. Very 
well. You say that the world in her progress has reached 
advanced providential light on this topic ; and you are pre- 
pared now to speak out touching the enormity of this institu- 
tion. Very well. Now, brother, where is my Bible ? I 
will trust you with this responsible office. Go through the 
Word of God and gather together all the topics on which 
man needs Divine teaching, and has received no more than 
God has given us on the subject we discuss. You yourself 
will admit that here are the residue of the great social rela- 
tions which make up more than half of human life ; these 
must all be thrown by as so many great moral topics 
on which we have as yet no adequate inspired instruc- 
tion. Here, too, are a thousand acts which I daily perform, 
and ten thousand views and feelings embracing God and 
man, of whose moral character I have no more discriminating 
Bible instruction than I have of the duties of master and ser- 
vant. All these too must be laid aside as matters about 
which I have yet to learn where and how the line of duty is 
to be drawn. I call upon you to tell me where is my Bible. 
See, my brother ! These providential lights bring us no ar- 
biter. How shall we reach the decisive truth on any one of 
these multiplied points about which God has so inconsider- 
ately neglected to inform us ? You say that light upon sla- 
very has reached you, and that by the law of Human Rights 
every holder of a slave is bound to release him instantly. I 
insist that providential light has reached my mind also, and 
that the law of Human Rights requires the master to keep his 
hold upon the servant for the present. Now I beg } r ou to 
bear in mind that you, a poor, fallible creature interpreting 
the lights of Providence, are not my Bible. My Bible is 
God acting arbiter between fallible men, and stating the truth. 



DELIVERED IX THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 33 

And now I insist upon it, if your Progress argument is right, 
and there is no adequate Scripture light on the subject of 
slavery, and of course no adequate Scripture instruction on 
the nine hundred and ninety-nine points of Christian duty of 
which God has said only as much, then you have taken away 
my Bible, and I am undone. But this is not all. 

III. It sets up a Bible of humanisms in the place of the Word 
of God. I know not what child of man's crazy fancy you 
may not make Bible to me upon the principle of your Pro- 
gress argument. Here is the doctrine of Womanism, so sol- 
emnly baptized of late in the West by a string of Female 
Conventional Resolutions. Your Progress argument puts as 
large a basis under this vagary as under your Abolitionism. 
The Scriptures we think sufficiently explicit in defining 
woman's position in society. It tells us that the head of the 
woman is the man, for woman was made second, and is the 
weaker vessel. As such she is commanded to submit herself 
to her own husband, as to the Lord, and to be subject to him 
in everything. If she would be chaste, discreet, or obedient, 
she must be a stayer at home, that she might bear children, 
guide the house, and build the same. But the moment she 
leaves her modest sphere, and would assume a more con- 
spicuous and commanding position, that moment Scripture 
meets her with the outcry, "It is a shame for a woman ! !" 
&c. ; that moment Scripture sends her back with the man- 
date, "Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection," 
"For it is not permitted unto them to speak nor to usurp au- 
thority, but to be in silence." All this would seem to indicate 
clearly enough that it does not belong to woman t<> take the 
lead in human society. 

But your doctrine, in the hand of the champion of this new 
light, assumes that all these Scriptures were penned in a dark 
and barbarous age ; that doubtless God had many tilings to 
say, important to the perfect development of.wonian's capaci- 
ties, relations, and rights, but these preparatory lights had no1 
then come, and consequently society was not able t<> bear the 
revelation. Now, however, in her onward progress, society 
has reached the abundant and elevated teachings ol history, 
3 



34 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

science, and universal improvement. Now the shades of 
Scripture times are passing away, and hosts of new truths 
are coming to light. More conspicuous than all, nature's 
grand doctrine of Liberty and Equality springs to view, and, 
favored by the novel and glorious illustrations of popular 
government, what a hearty cheering it radiates through all 
the ranks of the oppressed. No wonder woman, downtrod- 
den into the very earth from its foundations, should begin to 
feel the stirrings o£ sympathy with her long-lost rights ! No 
wonder she now begins to realize in all her soul that her 
Maker's hand has formed her just as free, just as gifted, just 
as worthy as her companion, and that there, existed not the 
shadow of a reason why she should not have been permitted 
to enjoy her equal rights in filling the higher stations of life, 
and to employ her equal capacities in the distinguished toil 
of lifting man to his destined perfection. Poor thing ! What 
a barbarous usurpation has stripped her all life long of the 
high prerogative of her nature, and doomed her to stand 
back and resign all share in making laws, governing States, 
commanding armies ! What a glorious day for woman ! 
Providence with his new lights has come to her rescue. Let 
arrogant, rebuked man now give place, and welcome woman 
to her legitimate dignities. * 

Mr. Moderator, why are not Womanism, and Communism, 
and Socialism, and Shakerism, and every other foolery of 
the earth, as well founded upon this doctrine of Progress, as 
Abolitionism ? We say that the duty of master and servant, 
the social position of woman, the law of property, &c. &c, 
are all clearly revealed in the Scriptures, and that man has ■ 
no commission to perfect the Word of God, and thus the 
matter is at rest. But our opposing brethren contend that 
God oi old made revelation to man only as far as he was 
able to bear it, and that new developments were to be provi- 
dentially expected in the progress of society ; that revela- 
tion upon the subject of slavery, as upon many other topics, 
was only partial, and that new light has now come, and that 
the world must follow it. I ask now, why have not these 
fanatics respectively as much right to affirm, first, that for the 
hardness of man's heart revelation of old was only partial 





DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 35 

touching the Rights of Woman, the Distribution of the gifts of 
the Creator, &c. &c. ; second, that new light has come to 
man on these points respectively ; and, third, that the world 
must follow it ? 

In weighing this argument let me say — 

1st. That the Bible is a revelation to man. 

Therefore that progress which either ascertains the original 
import of the text by sound rules of construction, or dis- 
covers that this or that old or new method of living is or is 
not covered by this or that rule of Scripture, — such progress, I 
say, is legitimate, and onward to the Millennium. 

2d. The Bible is not a revelation to a generation. 

Therefore that progress which proposes to enlighten the 
proper original import of God's Word ; which, confessedly or 
covertly, leaves the Scriptures to find the rule of life in im- 
proving developments, — I say such progress exactly cuts the 
cable after the ship has gone to anchor because she could not 
live in the tempest. A law above the Constitution ma} r pos- 
sibly be seen in one direction, but progress beyond the Bible 
is out of sight altogether. 

I put it to 3'ou, Mr. Moderator, whether I may not lay by 
this Progress argument with its predecessors? For if it so 
far fails of its end as to put down God's Word, and set up 
human extravagance, like the residue of the catalogue, it 
turns upon its author with a vengeance. 

IV. The Practical Argument. 

Brethren contend that experience establishes the essential 
sinfulness of slaveholding. The gospel reforms society. The 
Church has effectually tried the doctrine thai slaveholding 
is not essentially sinful, and nothing is done. And n< till- 
ing will be done until we change the ground, come back to 
the truth, and make slavery — sin. 

To this argument it might be responded, If the tardiness of 
the operation disproves the genuineness of the principle, why 
not throw up the plan of missionary operations? Surely om 
missionary progress has been slow. Why qo1 Look up an- 
other religion? Christianity, after G,000 years, has yet most 



36 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

of her work to do. But I answer more particularly : All 
things considered, if more has been done by the gospel in many 
branches of Christian benevolence in this land, during the last 
thirty years, I know it not. 

Let us study the work of the Southern Church with an im- 
partial mind, and inquire whether opposing brethren, instead 
of venting a prejudiced conscience fretted by the imagination 
of a stationary criminality in the whole business, should not 
thank God and take courage, in view of the wholesome pro- 
gress of the cause ; and instead of calling for discipline upon 
Southern brethren, whether they should not heartily lend a 
helping hand in the work they do ? I invite my brethren to 
glance over the field with me, and candidly weigh the fol- 
lowing considerations. 

I. The st7-ongest and purest expression of anti-slavery senti- 
ment, probably ever made by man, has been uttered by the South. 

I doubt not that pure and strong Anti-slavery convictions are 
entertained at the North, and that our brethren furnish every 
reasonable evidence of their sincerity and earnestness. But 
we have no evidence yet of the supreme strength of this con- 
viction. How will you try the purity and the power of a sen- 
timent in the human heart ? Surely not by words only ; not 
by any process of stubborn and imperious public agitation ; 
not by any determined political stand against Southern meas- 
ures ; not by any transient aid and comfort rendered to flying 
slaves. All these and many similar developments may cost 
but little. On the contrary, the power of a principle exhibits 
itself in the labors it can put forth, the oppositions it can re- 
sist, the self-denials it can bear, — in a word, by the sacrifices it 
can make. Where shall we find the most commanding ex- 
pression of that calm, enlightened, benign, high-souled Anti- 
slavery sentiment which is uttered by sacrifice ? You point us 
to England. For freedom in the West Indies— 20,000,000 
pounds sterling ! ! This was a noble testimony of her will 
to give freedom to the slave, the like of which our Northern 
friends have never approached. Three things, however, 
should work some abatement of our first impressions of Brit- 
ish devotion to this cause. This sum was furnished by the 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 37 

very richest treasury in the world. Only the interest of this 
sum has been paid ; the principal never will be until the great 
English debt is cancelled. Nor do I deem it scandal to say, 
that probably no small portion of this sum was paid to self- 
interest, and not by benevolent principle. A friend travelling 
in England at the time of the preparatory public agitation of 
the subject, informs me that one argument which told power- 
fully in persuading the English people to adopt this measure 
was the widely published doctrine that, since free labor was 
so far superior to slave labor, by this operation West India 
sugars would be purchased in England at a penny a pound 
below its present cost, so that England would receive 
100,000,000 pounds in return for her 20,000,000. 

It gives me pleasure to remind you, Mr. Moderator, that 
near 250,000 slaves are computed to have been freed in this 
countiy, mainly at the South. Assuming the average value 
of the slave to be 100 pounds sterling, you have, sir, upon 
this principle more than five and twenty millions of 
pounds sterling contributed to this cause ofputtirig away sla- 
very from these United States by the slaveholders of the 
South. Mark the contrast. This immense sum has been 
actually paid out, not interest only, but principal also ; not 
by a rich public treasury, but by private families who lived 
by the slaves they surrendered ; not before the public eye, 
but in the retirement of private life ; not under the cheering 
voice of universal praise, but possibly under the chilling 
looks of many a neighbor who charges the emancipator with 
the discontent which now springs up in the bosom of his 
Colored family ; not under circumstances which provided the 
slightest hope of pecuniary emolument, but from no other 
possible motive than conscientious, quiet, kind, ami-slavery 
sentiment. Let Northern brethren weigh this, and hereafter 
give to the South the respect due to the very first position of 
friendship to African freedom by pecuniary sacrifice, 

II. The men who dwell south of Mason and Dixon's line have 
done more to convert the heathen than the whole world beside. 

What is the whole number of 'converted heathen which 



38 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

the American Church presents this day to the eye of God 
and the world *? — 

American Board, 2 6,000 

Baptist Missions, 1 5,000 

Methodist Missions, 1 3,000 

Presbyterian Missions, 250 

Episcopal Missions, »71 

54,321 

Observe, Mr. Moderator, one branch of one Christian de- 
nomination at the South, viz., the Methodist Episcopal Church 
numbers 134,722 Colored members. More than three times as 
many heathen converted through Southern instrumentality as 
the combined American Church can produce. 

What, sir, allow me now to inquire, is the sum total of the 
membership of all the heathen churches in the world ? By 
those best informed on this subject the number is estimated 
at something like 200,000. Turn your eye once more to the 
South. Say nothing of the Colored members of all the 
churches in the State of Maryland, (and they are numerous,) 
nor of the Presbyterian Church, nor of the Episcopal Church, 
nor of the Lutheran Church, nor of certain branches of the 
Methodist and of the Baptist denominations, in all the South. 
Simply fix your eye upon one branch respectively of two 
Christian Churches. You will find enrolled upon their list of 
Colored members — 

In the Methodist Church, 134,000 

" Baptist Church, , 130,000 

264,000 

Thus, sir, apart of the Southern Church holds up this day 
to the gaze of heaven and earth scores of thousands more of 
heathen fellow-men hoping in Christ through their labors than all 
the churches of the Free Soil of the world combined have yet gath- 
ered to the Master. Let philanthropists employ all proper 
methods to free the soil of the world. It is a noble cause, 
and I will unite with them. But let our Northern brethren 
weigh one singular fact : These very brethren of the South, 
upon whom they themselves have been la}ang on so hard and 
so long for their cruel oppression of the bondman, and whom 
forsooth from year to year they have been so anxious to 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL 'ASSEMBLY. 39 

persuade Providence to thrust out of the Church, as not wor- 
thy of a standing in it, — these are the very men whom thai 
very Providence has made the honored instruments, in one 
sense at least, of doing more for the salvation of the heathen 
world than all the Church militant beside. Yes, let them pon- 
der this. 

III. The Southern Church has effected a vast amelioration of 
the social and religious condition of the slave. 

When landed in this country, the African captive belonged 
to the most degraded heathen upon the face of the earth. His 
descendant still needs great improvement, but is far removed 
from the universal debasement of his progenitor. Changes 
for the better have marked the history of slavery, from its 
introduction to the present hour. 

1st. The Southern Church has clone her part in working val- 
uable modifications of the laics of the land. An examination of 
the slave laws of successive generations will exhibit a steady 
advance in the considerate benignity of the legislator. Nor, 
should we overlook the beneficial changes wrought in the spirit 
and power of ancient statutes, through a constantly-improving 
public sentiment. There are benefits conferred upon the slave 
by statute, which of old never fully reached him in the admin- 
istration. From the earliest times there existed a law, forbid- 
ding labor on the Sabbath. I well remember, when a boy, 
the universal custom of taking the servants on the Sabbath 
day to the corn-house to shell, or to the potato-field to dig, 
that the weekly plantation-allowance of vegetable diet might 
be distributed. This practice, I apprehend, is now univer- 
sally abolished. That the spirit and principle of the Church 
did its part in effecting the change, you may Learn from this 
incident. I knew a church member, who, grieved by the 
prevalence of this custom, personally persuaded his Christian 
brethren and friends to abolish it in their respective families, 
and finding one stout opposerofthe innovation, beyond the 
limits of the Church, he at last calmly apprised him of the 
law of the land, and of his purpose of becoming Public Prose- 
cutor if he did not. yield to the public sentimenl of his neigh- 
bors. There always existed a law forbidding the inhuman 



40 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIOXS, 

correction of a slave. I am persuaded that there never existed 
in Southern society such excessive violations of this law s as 
some uninformed persons at a distance imagine. Yet I well 
remember a state of things which must have operated to break 
the power of this benign statute. Years ago, any allusions 
to a Southern master's treatment of his slave would have 
colored his face as promptly and indignantly as though you 
had intermeddled with his conduct towards his wife, or his 
child, or his disposition of any chattel on his farm. But public 
sentiment on this subject has undergone such a change, that 
every community feels itself a trustee to some extent of the 
natural and legal rights of the slaves that dwell in its bosom, 
and the beneficiary now gets the fair protection of this law. It 
may throw light upon the manner in which this reformation 
was wrought, if I inform you that many years since, a Chris- 
tian hearing that a servant had been cruelly chastised on a 
neighboring plantation, availed himself of the Patrol system 
of the South, and having ascertained the fact by personal ob- 
servation, informed the overseer that he should prosecute him 
for breach of law. He did so, and had him convicted and 
punished. I stood by the side of that Christian man when 
he received intelligence that the enraged owner, in a neigh- 
boring city, had avowed his purpose to shoot him down as a 
dog wherever he met him. One year afterwards, I was again 
walking from a religious meeting by his side, when the son of 
the threatener delivered to that faithful Christian the father's 
permit to enter the only plantation in the county which had here- 
tofore been closed against the good man's private visits for 
the religious instruction of the servants. In most of the South- 
ern States there exists an old law, which forbids that a slave 
should be taught to read. When a boy, I well remember my 
conviction of the terrible authority of this edict. To the 
Southern mind in that day, to violate this law seemed a little 
like taking one step toward the application of the match to the 
magazine. Now, how changed is the feeling ? The good 
influence of the Bible upon the slave, and every man's right 
of direct access to the Word of God is extensively understood. 
It has long been a common spectacle to see the children of a 
Southern family at night, or on the Sabbath, employed in teach- 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 41 

ing the servants to read. It is many years since night-schools, 
in which Colored adults taught Colored children to read, were 
common in all our Southern cities, and I believe well known 
to city authorities, and generally unmolested by them. It is 
worthy of observation, that a few years since, when a Southern 
Legislature, alarmed by Abolition interference, revived this ob- 
solete law, Christian public sentiment at the South felt ifCsesai 
moved to put away the Bible from the servant, God's people 
must move, as best they can, to bring it back. A consequent 
impulse was given to Oral Instruction far and wide, whose 
results have been singularly happy. One is this : that hun- 
dreds of servants learn to read now, where none were taught 
before. And hundreds of copies of the Scriptures are dis- 
tributed among the slaves at this day, which would never 
have been received if the old law had been permitted to sleep. 
Thus 3 r ou perceive that the steady improvement of public sen- 
timent at the South, in part through the fidelity of the church, 
has been progressively working a beneficial change in the face 
of the government toward the slave, not only by procuring 
the enactment of humane laws, but by breaking down the 
governing power of unfriendly statutes, and giving force to 
such benign legislation as was a dead letter before. 

2d. The same causes have wrought a corresponding social 
improvement in all things pertinent to the present comfort and 
future prospects of the slave. I apprehend there is but little 
to be objected to at this day, in the physical tic; it incut of South- 
ern servants. Their condition is at least fair in respect to food, 
raiment, shelter, work, and general discipline. A remarkable 
revolution has occurred in the habits of Southern society re- 
specting the discussion of the nature and Claims of this relation. 
Half a century ago, this institution appeared to the mass of 
Southern population as an impregnable fixture ; and yel it is a 
singular fact, that, as a topic of deliberate meditation or dis- 
course, it was clothed with a forbidding awe, which made it 
almost as intangible as a plot of treason. Now, be who jour- 
neys through the Southern States, in public houses and con- 
veyances may hear as frequent discourse on this subjeel as 
on almost any other. And could he compare the sentiments 
of the present generation with those of the past, he would be 
delighted to mark the liberal tendency of the times. 



42 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

The steady advance of the spirit of emancipation is another 
and most interesting feature of the general progress. The 
records of the American Colonization Society furnish gratify- 
ing testimony on this point. You will not forget, Mr. Modera- 
tor, the testimony of one of our brethern on this floor, that in 
his immediate vicinity one of his neighbors had recently given 
to this cause $500 ; another, $1,000 ; a third, $2,000 ; a fourth, 
$3,000 — all men in moderate circumstances. Yes, sir, and 
in the wealthier sections of the South there are those who are 
this day giving their $50,000 to the freedom of the slave. 

3d. In no respect, however, has the condition of the slave 
been more decidedly improved, than in his religious privileges. 
It is not surprising that his claims to spiritual care should have 
been early neglected. There was nothing encouraging in the 
state of the pupil, for he was exceedingly dark and unintelli- 
gent at best, and there existed no common language between 
himself and his teacher ; and nothing energetic in the spirit of 
the teacher, for the Church in that day had not been aroused 
to the high duty of transmitting God's truth to all within her 
reach. Since that period, however, light from heaven has 
been gradually shed upon the Southern Church, and she has 
responded to the appeal. To the observant eye, the Southern 
country is full of testimonies to this truth. The dark, dreamy, 
superstitious views of religion, into which the Colored population 
naturally fell in the beginning, are rapidly giving place to better 
teaching. In the early order of things in Southern society, 
the Church rarely made its way to the humble domiciles of the 
plantation to carry the gospel to their inmates, while the ser- 
vants who found their way to the church of their masters were 
called on to participate in ordinances designed primarily for 
others, and of very little comfort or profit to the unlettered. 
Left to themselves, the Colored population very naturally con- 
structed a system of worship very greatly deficient in truth, 
full of error, embracing in its active services large measures 
of bodily exercise, under repetitions and noisy songs and ex- 
hortations, and producing a Christian experience which con- 
sisted of little more than a tissue of dreams, visions, " travels," 
&c. It is now, however, many years since Southern conscience 
was taught to feel that it had a duty to discharge to the be- 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 43 

nigbted servant — a duty too long neglected. To this duty 
the Church betook itself, with commendable energy and sys- 
tem, and the face of the kingdom in this section of the country 
now presents a very different aspect. 

There are a diversity of established methods in which the 
master brings the gospel to the servant. In the cities there 
are large Colored churches, sometimes of two or three thou- 
sand members. Church edifices they are assisted to erect 
when necessary. The pulpit is generally supplied by pious, 
talented, Colored preachers ; sometimes by white brethren of 
the very first talent and highest stations in the Church.* Sal >- 
bath-schools, under the tuition of intelligent white teachers, 
male and female, are in common use in cities, towns, and 
villages. On plantations masters frequently conduct family 
prayer, so as to secure sound instruction to the servant. The 
travelling minister is almost always put in requisition for this 
service. Instead of the old-fashioned Negro "praise-home" 
it is common in many parts of the country to build a neat 
" Plantation Chapel," and to invite all accessible ministerial 
aid. I am happy to know that on this subject of giving judi- 
cious religious instruction to the Colored population, then is a 
very commendable fidelity on the part of the stated ministry 
in all sections of the Southern country. Should you happen 
to enter a sanctuary in Virginia, when a Presbytery was in 
session, you might possibly hear the roll called, and each 
minister in his place summoned to give an account to his 
brethren, according to a stated order, of what he was doing 
within his bounds for the people of color ; nor would yon be 
more fortunate than I have been, if some holy elder (who, 
peradventure, paid a missionary to teach his servants) should 
rise a little out of order because he could not contain himself, 
and most tenderly and solemnly express the feelings of his 
conscience and heart, descriptive of that burden ofresponsi- 

* One such church finds a regular pastor in the President of a College, who n 
a salary from the Blacks of $1)01,1 or *soo. A valued I'rofessor in a theological semi- 
nary vacated his chair to devote himself exclusively to the instruction of servants. 
The President of Washington College, Va., recently resigned lii- office to Conduct B 
periodical designed to convince his countrymen of the evils of the relation of mas- 
ter and servant. 



44 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

bility to God and to the servant, which he felt rested in com- 
mon upon himself and all his brethren. Had your Presbytery- 
been assembled in South Carolina, the ministers would not 
have escaped with so general an inquiry. Each, in his place, 
would have been called to answer whether he had preached, 
during the interval of Presbyterial sessions, one half of every 
Sabbath to the servants of his neighborhood. 

But the most important features of this reformation are yet 
to be noticed. Catechisms to aid the master in the private 
instruction of his servant have been drawn up, if I mistake 
not, by every prevalent denomination of the South, and dis- 
tributed amongst the people. The country, too, has been 
largely districted, (where this operation was most needed,) and 
a Missionary employed to devote' himself exclusively to the 
Colored population within the prescribed limit, in preaching, 
teaching, visitation, and Sabbath-school supervision. It is 
ascertained that the churches built for the worship of the mas- 
ters, are in many cases injudiciously located for the accom- 
modation of the slaves ; and I am credibly informed that it is 
quite common to erect a new church in some position selected 
exclusively for the convenience of the Colored population, and 
devoted entirely to their service. I can think of no religious 
meetings on this earth more delightful, none that my heart 
more ardently pants to enjoy, than the worship of the masters 
and servants of adjacent plantations, under the ministry of 
their beloved Missionary. My own past experience forbad 
me to wonder at the tears of sympathy and joy, which lately 
fell from the eyes of a good master, while casually sketching 
to me in private his habitual enjoyment of such a privilege. 
In testimony of the sound, conscientious, intelligent interest 
which is felt by the Southern Church on this subject, I will 
only further say, that Essays, Reports, Pastoral Letters, Pe- 
riodicals, &c, have long been in course of publication ; that 
ecclesiastical bodies of all denominations have long been accus- 
tomed to give their highest authority, their best services to 
this cause ; that Conventions, formed by delegates from differ- 
ent States, and composed of the very first men of the land, have 
sometimes devoted days to the most liberal discussion of this 
whole subject ; and I am just now assured by one well informed 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 45 

upon all this subject, that the whole system of imparting reli- 
gious instruction to servants in all parts of the South is in a 
healthful and improving condition. 

It occurs to me here, that my Abolition brother has been 
comforting himself at heart under the imagined recital of the 
indirect, but sure results of his own bold and fearless stand 
for Christianity and the oppressed. I apprehend that truth be- 
fore God requires some considerable abatement of this self-com- 
placent, most confident conviction. You remind me that the 
improvement in the condition of the Southern slave has been 
cotemporaneous with the Abolition movement of the North. 
The same period dates a similar improvement in almost every 
branch of Christian benevolence, in the cause of Missions, the 
Bible, Tracts, Temperance, &c. Were these, too, the fruit 
of Abolition effort ? Does not a general effect call for a general 
cause ? And is not all this advance of the kingdom to be 
accredited to a general diffusion of God's Spirit upon his 
Church ? You respond, that agitation is the means which the 
Spirit ordinarily employs to effect general reformation. You 
will find it difficult of proof, however, that the agitation of the 
subject of slavery occasioned by the Abolition movement has 
secured that progress at the South, which I have endeav- 
ored to sketch. There are three grand objections to the 
wholesome power of the Abolition effort, arising out of one 
fact — the position of the agitator, beyond the limits of the body 
to be reformed. 1st. Such an agitator will always lack influ- 
ence. His veiy first blow, and every successive one, strikes 
upon ancient prejudice, and wakes up opposition, and it will 
be felt and said constantly, You are a stranger, an intermeddler, 
and an enemy ; and he will be sure to lack power over those 
he would move. 2d. Such an agitator will lack knowledge. He 
is not on the ground. He does not see and know that of 
which he speaks, and his zeal will tempt him to devour 
greedily the extravagances cast upon his ears; and yon may 
rest assured these, his errors and extravagances, will bi 
promptly detected and largely overrated by the assailed, to 
the limitation of his influence. 3d. Such an agitator will be 
very apt to lack sympathy and discretion. He is nol part and 
parcel with the body he would reform, and will be almost 



46 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

sure to be deficient in that spirit of tender interest, forbear- 
ance and allowance, that constant, cautious fear of the disas- 
trous consequences of speaking too strong, or going too fast; 
all of which are so indispensable to the success of every 
reformation movement. Mr. Moderator, the sun does not 
shine, if the influence of our friends at the North, who would 
reform the South by their violent speeches and measures, is 
not, to some extent, like the agency of him who locks the 
door of the house he would enter. Yet I have never felt with 
Southern men in general that this was the only influence of 
Abolition on the South. Whether the natural, necessary 
effect of the movement to rouse attention to the subject, and 
to cast light upon some branches of it, has or has not been 
counterbalanced by the mischiefs proceeding from the ex- 
travagance of its radical principle, the uncharitable spirit of 
the agitator, and his frequent errors in statement, positively 
and stubbornly advanced, I cannot say. But my conviction 
is very decided, that our Abolition friends are accustomed to 
overrate their connection with Southern improvement, and to 
' underrate home influence in the same. Mr. Moderator, without 
recurring to history for its proof, I venture to express the 
opinion, that as it was in the great Reformation, so in general it 
is in the multitude of moral reforms effected by the progress 
of society, in every part and age of the world, — the successful 
agitators are integral elements of the body reformed. The influ- 
ence, the sympathy, the minute knowledge, the admirable 
discretion, and the undying interest, almost necessary to every 
such achievement, would seem to demand it. Whether the 
substantial progress of the interesting Cause of the Bondman 
of the South has not been effected in the same manner, I leave 
you to judge, upon the statement of a few facts. 

There has been unceasing agitation of this subject, in the 
wisest and happiest manner, by Southern men, from the date 
of the landing of the first slave on American soil. You know, 
sir, that before the Constitution of the United States was 
framed, while yet we were colonies of England, the Southern 
States protested against the introduction of this population. 
Now, sir, from that day to this, I affirm that Southern 
records, political, religious, literary, and historical, present a 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 47 

constant succession of publications on the subject of slavery, 
by Southern men of the highest rank and talent, in Church 
and State, embodying as great a degree of accuracy, kind- 
ness, discretion, and fidelity of sentiment as characterizes 
any similar number of publications uttered at the North with- 
in the last twenty years. If there is any approach to truth in 
this statement, Mr. Moderator, with all the powerful and vari- 
ous advantages of home influence, have all these efforts been 
powerless, while similar efforts from abroad have been reform- 
ing the land ? Again, sir, from the earliest period of oar his- 
tory, ecclesiastical bodies at the South, and especially of the 
Presbyterian order, have held up this subject to their churches, 
and pressed religious duty upon the conscience just as far as, 
in their Christian judgment, they were permitted to do. 
What has been the influence of this steady movement through 
past generations ? I intend no disrespect, but for reasons 
too obvious to need a statement, I must be permitted to say, 
if any member of this body imagines that a strong Abolition 
announcement by this General Assembly will approach to 
the power over the Southern Church which will always fel- 
low the calm, solemn, faithful appeal of her own Presby- 
teries or Synods, he makes a great mistake. 

Mr. Moderator, why may not reformation commence I 
home ? Are the masses so involved in the common interest 
and prejudice against the truth that they are not likely to see 
and appreciate it? But bear in mind, all reformation com- 
mences with individuals, and all history shows that there 
ever have been at the South individuals friends of the truth, 
awake and active upon this subject. These publications and 
decisions of old, brought to bear upon the Colored race, what 
reformation element do they lack? There is mind there, and 
truth there, and the gospel there, and the Spirit there ; — cer- 
tainly, too, a closer view of the necessities of reformation, 
deeper interest in the work to be done, and higher influence over 
the body to be moved. Mr. Moderator, to some small extent 
I hold myself a witness in this case. I know by personal 
observation, that these Southern efforts have carried reforma- 
tion power. Prior to the day when the South tell fretted by 
Abolition interference, now more than twenty yens a I 



48 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

well remember that a Christian man, born and bred at the 
South, rode many miles, called on me at my domicile in the 
State of Georgia, and solicited me to become a member of a 
Society which he purposed to form for the "Religious Instruc- 
tion of the Colored Population." This devoted and talented 
minister of Jesus was himself made the General As-ent of the 
Society originated at that time. Through him we put forth the 
first year an able tract on the "Degradation of the Southern 
Slave" and scattered it through the countj^. This, sir, did 
its work. We had our anniversary, and reported progress. 
The second year we drew up, and published, and distributed 
an able essay on the "Obligation of the Master." I noticed 
the effect of this document in all my itinerations. During the 
third year we published a "Catechism " to aid this responsible 
master in the discharge of his duty to this necessitous mem- 
ber of his family, — a document, let me say, of such singular 
value, that it found its way across the waters to the table of a 
missionary of the American Board, who thought he saw in it 
the precise desideratum for his own field, and had it printed, 
and set to the work of reformation amonu; the heathen abroad. 
Suffer me to say that this Society has been in steady opera- 
tion from that day to this, not only sending its Agent around 
the district to instruct the slaves at convenient station-houses 
erected for the purpose, but annually reporting, and occasion- 
ally publishing as necessity demanded. To the favorable 
influence of this movement, first upon the population under 
its immediate supervision, then upon the counties adjacent, 
and finally, through its publications, upon the friends of the 
cause at a distance, and even in other States, multitudes 
can bear witness. What had Abolition to do with the origin 
or power of this operation ? 

It was my privilege, about the period of the formation of 
this Society, to visit an eminent Christian who dwelt in a 
neighboring State, and where, you will remark, there now 
prevails through all the surrounding country as high a degree 
of religious fidelity to the Colored population as distinguishes 
any section of the South. • I learned that he had been in the 
habit of employing a minister to preach to his large family of 
servants for many years. He informed me that, though his neigh- 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 49 

bors far and near were at that time favorable to this species 
of operation, yet when he first commenced it, he was told that 
his movement endangered the peace and lives of the whites, 
and he must desist. He answered their arguments, and 
moved forward in his duty. They became more serious in 
their objections : he still persisted. At length their opposition 
waxed so firm and united that he was driven to tell them : 
" Gentlemen, I am engaged in my duty, and before I give it 
up, I will plant a cannon in every window of my house, and 
you shall go over my dead body to take away the Word of 
God from my family." I had the pleasure of preaching the 
gospel in his neighborhood, when the conversion of some of 
his early opposers led him to give me this history. Here is 
an operation that dates back its origin perhaps forty years 
from this time. What had Abolition to do with the waking 
up of this man's mind to duty ? We accord to it, with all its 
ill- workings, some collateral stimulation of a good cause ; and 
its friends, in turn, should concede that wherever similar im- 
provements are witnessed in Southern society at this day, 
they may have had a similarly independent origin. 

Here let me arrest this elaborate narration with one re- 
mark. This subject is presented at great disadvantage, for 
it comes before you, not through the pen of the historian who 
had explored the ground and collected the facts, but simply 
through the casual recollections of one who, years ago, was an 
eye-witness of some portions of the operation. 

Mr. Moderator, what shall we say of this argument ? Has 
nothing been done under that Anti-slavery doctrine which 
Abolitionism opposes? Sir, weigh the enormous disadvanr 
tages against which the Reform principle had to contend : 
the interest, the powerful interest, that both blinded and op- 
posed the agent; the prejudice, the public sentiment, the 
laws that stood so directly, so strongly, so menacingly in the 
way; and in what branch of Christian benevolence has more 
been effected in the same time ? You have seen, sir, that by 
the outlay of a sum of money ibur times as large as the whole 
American Church has contributed to all Christian enu.-es 
from the beginning,* Southern men have earned the honor of 

* See Appendix, No. IV. "* 



50 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

exhibiting the very noblest Anti-slavery sentiment uttered by 
any class of men in our day ; that the Southern Church have 
been the happy instruments, under God, of baptizing a larger 
number of heathen brethren than all the missionary operations 
of the world beside ; that, by a self-denying, laborious, and 
intrepid zeal, they have wrought a change in the social and 
religious condition of servants, and the public sentiment of 
masters, which cannot fail to impart the deepest gratification 
to every bosom that ever felt one beat of philanthropy for the 
bondman. 

I put it to you, Mr. Moderator, whether this argument of 
my brethren does not belong to the same catalogue of impreg- 
nable proofs of the principle it was enlisted to overthrow ? If 
moderate Anti-slavery sentiment has really done so much, 
God and the truth must be with it. 

I repeat, sir, the fair statement of the acknowledged facts 
of the case shows that slaveholding is not sin per se. So 
signally true is this, that every argument advanced to estab- 
lish the doctrine overthrows its own foundations, and builds 
up the doctrine opposed. 

SECOND.--THE DUTY OP THE PARTIES CONCERNED. 

The duty of all parties may be comprised in one brief 
sentence : Come to the Word of God. 

Let the Master come to the. Word of God, and do what 
that Word so plainly enjoins. Let him remember that, in 
general, he owes his servant the love that belongs to every 
brother man ; and, in particular, that kind and faithful 
guardianship which will give him that which is just and 
equal in his relation. So doing, he will be sure to labor to 
lift him ultimately above the disadvantages of his present 
position, by the wisest and surest method which his judg- 
ment and circumstances may suggest. 

Let the Servant come to the Word of God, and do all which 
that Word enjoins. Let him, in general, love his master as 
he should love every fellow-man, and be particularly careful 
to discharge, with cheerfulness and fidelity, all the duties 
which Scripture devolves upon him as a servant. Let him 
strive to be content with his providential condition, and do 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 51 

nothing to alienate, but everything to secure the good-will of 
his master. 

Let the Non-slavcholding brother in the Church come to the 
Word of God, and see to it that, in general, he speaks to that 
master as God speaks to him in the Bible, and to that ser- 
vant as God speaks to him in the Scriptures. And let him 
especially beware, lest he set himself above the Apostles 
and their Lord, by teaching such doctrines, touching these 
parties respectively, as the New Testament has not revealed, 
and by addressing such counsel to the parties as the New 
Testament never gives. 

God has made Duty the appointed channel of divine bless- 
ing. All good will follow fidelity here. 

1. Nothing like Bible duty will build up the character of the 
parties. I am persuaded that there is nothing which will 
more beautifully develop the Christian character of the 
master, than a conscientious, just, and sympathizing dis- 
charge of all his Scripture duty to his servant : nothing 
which will more certainly or happily perfect the Christian 
character of the servant, than a studious, steady effort to 
serve his master in strict accordance with the spirit and terms 
of Scripture requirement. 

2. Nothing like Bible duty will brighten the prospects of the 
parties. As for the servant, his present comfort and future 
hopes depend far more upon his fidelity than upon any other 
conceivable influence. Only let him be faithful toward God 
and man, and he will feel, in the depths of his own heart, 
the abiding consolation of high-soulcd virtue ; a sustaining 
sense of integrity, cheered by the joy and peace of ever- 
flowing benevolent affection. Only let him be faithful, and 
his fidelity, as nothing else can, will be sure to act upon the 
master's intellect and conscience, so as to open his mind to 
clearer and still clearer views of his elevated relative duty, 
and win upon his heart to do for this humble, faithful friend 
all that wisdom and love suggest. Nothing like mutual 
fidelity will so certainly or so soundly convince the master 
that slavery, on the whole, is not a wholesome condition of 
human society for either party. It intrusts too much un- 
guarded power to imperfect man. This he will daily feel. 



52 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

It subjects the degraded yet elevated capacities of an im- 
mortal nature to too unpropitious a school for desirable de- 
velopment. This he will daily see. Such, I judge, will be 
the class of reflections and influences which mutual fidelity 
will be sure to bring to bear upon the master's mind. The 
result is obvious : an augmenting perception of what, on the 
whole, is best for both parties, and a growing, generous in- 
clination to do for the inferior that which will ultimately 
plant him and his posterity upon the grand platform of equal 
rights. 

3. Nothing like Bible duty will secure the friendship of 
the parties. Mutual daily action upon such principles must 
make the intercourse increasingly pleasant and kind. And 
when the slave is ultimately raised to freedom by the master's 
generosity, while the master feels it is more blessed to give 
than to receive, the nature of that gift will never, never 
permit the master's kindness to be effaced from the freed- 
man's heart. Go and converse with the officers of the 
American Colonization Society — they will tell you freedom, 
thus obtained, is entailing eternal and tenderest friendship 
between these long embittered races. Who does not see 
that this is God's way of doing this work ? 

4. Nothing like Bible duty will display the very brightest 
glory of Christianity. Behold the operation of Christianity 
in working off slavery from the face of the earth ! There is 
no relation under heaven so tryingly, desperately abject on 
the one hand, nor independent on the other. Consequently 
there is no such field amongst men for the exercise of gener- 
ous, self-controlling, self-denying sympathy with the helpless 
on the one hand, nor of noble, cheerful humility ; unrewarded, 
self-sacrificing consecration on the other. Thus, more singu- 
lar and beautiful specimens of celestial virtue, than the 
gospel will work out in gradually dismissing slavery from 
the earth, I do not expect to behold in the day of the revela- 
tion of all things. 

5. Nothing like Bible duty will heal the breach of the Church. 
The strife of Christian brethren should be allayed. Let all 
parties come to the Word of God. Now we see eye to eye. 
Now, brother harbors dishonoring sentiment — utters provok- 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 53 

ing language — presses excommunicating measures against 
his brother no more. No ! he now takes a different view 
both of the character and condition of his brother. He sym- 
pathizes, he encourages, he advises, he cooperates. The 
darkened, struggling, tempted, burdened mind of the other ! 
who can tell what seasonable counsel, encouragement and 
strength in its momentous, self-denying work it imbibes from 
all this fraternal sympathy ? Thus, kind patience on the one 
hand generates teachable respect on the other, and the 
brethren are brought together, and God's good work is ac- 
complished. 

6. Nothing like Bible duty will ease off the friction of the 
nation. Pronounce slaveholding sin per se, and act upon 
your dogma. There can be no cordial respect — no courteous 
language — no kind cooperation. There can be no compro- 
mise — no patience — no safe association. The one faces the 
other as a desperate wrong-doer. The second bristles up 
against the first as an impertinent, fanatical, provoking ac- 
cuser. Mark ! it is this very doctrine which is cutting, at 
this very hour, upon the tie of the Union with more sever- 
ing energy than all other agencies combined. Let the State 
as well as the Church come to the Word of God — respect, 
cordiality, compromise spring up, and perilous friction in- 
stantly subsides into harmony and peace. 

Now, let the parties violate this injunction, and fail to come 
to the Word of God, and continue to legislate for themselves on- 
this subject, and act on the doctrine that slavery is sin per se, 
and what will be the issue ? 

Nothing can more seriously mutilate the character of mas- 
ter and servant : for it spreads an influence over the spirit 
of both, and makes the one hostile and insurgent — the other 
suspicious and severe ; — nothing so effectually dissipate the 
prospect of present comfort or future deliverance : for with- 
out respect^ the serving of the one must be pure hardship ; 
without love, the spirit of the other will never cherish an 
inclination to emancipate ; — nothing so certainly destroy all 
the foundations of friendship : for Abolitionism will disturb 
both parties for the present, and, if it ever frees the slave, 
it will entail an eternal hostility upon the races it tears apart ; — 



54 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

nothing more grievously wrong Christianity : for it will spoil 
those lovely shapes of Christian virtue to which the provi- 
dence and Word of God entitle her in the glorious progress 
of the Gospel ; — nothing more surely aggravate the present 
mischievous agitation of the Church, or compel Jacob's chil- 
dren ultimately to fall out by the way ; — nothing has hitherto 
so fearfully shaken the State to its foundations — and nothing 
so sure to split it to atoms in the end. 

Mr. Moderator, if there is an error in this land which 
light and love summon us instantly to abandon, it is, in my 
judgment, the doctrine that to hold a slave, no matter on 
what principle, for what end, is sin against God. 

Mr. Moderator: For a series of years our Abolition brethren 
have been violently knocking at your door, and demanding 
the discipline of the Southern Church for the sin of slavery. 
If they can bear one word more, I shall be pleased to in- 
quire whether they ever imagined what would follow an imi- 
tation of their spirit and practice by the Southern Church ? 
Should it surprise them if, in her turn, she should respectfully 
solicit at your hand a solemn inquiry into the moral charac- 
ter of Abolitionism, and a recommendation to your inferior 
courts to purge the Church forthwith of this offensive element? 

Confine your investigation to a single development of the 
principle. 

It will not be denied, I presume, that a line of Abolition 
posts has been long since established on the extreme southern 
border of the Free States, from the Mississippi river, perhaps 
to the Atlantic, organized to apprise the oppressed population 
beyond the line that the moment a slave makes his way across 
to Free Soil he will there find every arrangement made, every 
power at hand, to transport him rapidly from his house of 
bondage to a safe refuge in the bosom of Canada. Reports 
of annual progress are frequently published by these organi- 
zations. , 

What, sir, is the moral influence of this movement, 

1st. Upon human respect for the authority of the Word of God ? 
God's Word delivers various commands to the servant, — 
commands, every line of which, be it remembered, carries 
just as much Divine authority as any text of Holy Writ. What 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 55 

is the influence of the obvious spirit, ordinary language, and 
prominent act of this frontier movement, upon the authority of 
God's Word, especially on the mind of the slave? Is it pos- 
sible for human ingenuity to invent a method which shall 
enlist a more palpable or powerful moral force to break down 
in the soul of the slave all regard for God's commands to him 
in the Bible ? Does not this whole movement as it were put 
a violent hand upon him, and force him into a direct and out- 
rageous disobedience of every Divine injunction addressed to 
him in the Scriptures ? Reflect ! His master God in the 
Bible commands him " to honor,'''' " to obey," " to serve," " to 
submit to," " to please," " not to despise," " not to answer again," 
not to purloin from." Now, these Abolition brethren who meet 
the flying slave on the shore — does the spirit they breathe 
toward his master, the words they address to him about his 
master, the act they perform in its relation to his master, 
produce any other effect than to stir up the whole heart of the 
servant into the most positive and flagrant violation of the 
spirit and letter of every word of God to his soul concerning 
his duty to that master ? 

Oh, my brethren ! I would that every bondman on the 
face of the earth were possessed of the freedom you so highly 
prize. But, the Bible! the Bible ! ! framed to do this and 
every other good work for man — what deep and shameful dis- 
honor you cast upon this Blessed Bible ! ! The violent ten- 
dency of this conduct is to break down the power of the Bible 
upon the face of the whole earth. Mr. Moderator, with great 
kindness I must be allowed to say, whatever benevolent 
promptings toward man do beat in the heart of my brethren, 
this, their act, in its moral bearing upon the Scriptures, I hold 
to be great dishonor to God, great hurt to the earth, and, 
therefore, great sin against God and man. 

2d. Upon the character of the master, the servant, and the agent ? 
Collect every command of God to the master as well as to 
the servant, in the Holy Scriptures, and I think you will find 
that this your frontier movement violently tempts the one 
party, and provokes the other to direct and universal diso- 
bedience. And if this is so, what must be its influence upon 
the agent? Mr. Moderator, when God at great expense and 



56 SPEECH ON THE SLAVERY RESOLUTIONS, 

in great love has stooped from heaven expressly to mark out 
the only path in which perishing man must walk to find 
spiritual deliverance, is it not a great sin that Christian men 
should throw themselves violently between God and the soul 
he is rescuing, and press that soul away from the path of life? 
Is it not the greater sin in that it is done in direct violation 
of apostolic example in similar circumstances? Can such 
work as this be of sanctification to the soul engaged in it ? 

3. There is one far more delicate, more shocking bearing 
of this frontier movement, which, Mr. Moderator, my brethren 
will pardon me if I advert to for an instant. I mean its cor- 
rupting, I am pained to say, its degrading influence upon a cer- 
tain class of young ministers of the gospel. A young man has a 
generous and intrepid spirit : this is felt and valued by his 
every friend. Peradventure nature has not so largely endowed 
him with discretion and a sense of the propriety of things. 
He is called to Christ, and commissioned to preach the gospel. 
Kinsmen and acquaintances alike anticipate a life of heaven- 
blest devotion to the good cause. He becomes an Abolitionist. 
He sees his seniors all around him building shelters for the 
refugees, collecting funds, providing means, appointing agents, 
and forming plans to secure their rescue. Yes, sir, he sees 
them upon the bank opening wide their arms, and lifting high 
their inviting voice to the bondman across the river. What 
wonder, Mr. Moderator, that his fired soul should boldly, I 
will say generously, if misguidedly, over-step the line, and 
risk his own freedom in a clandestine enterprise to deliver the 
fellow-creature he had been taught to believe was so wickedly 
oppressed? A Judge on the bench, in the State of Missouri, 
once informed me that such a young minister had just been 
brought before him. The evidence was irresistible. No 
sympathy, no learning, no eloquence, no possible interposition, 
could protect him from the issue. He further assured me 
that he had received reliable information, that since his de- 
parture from home two others had been arrested under simi- 
lar circumstances, whom he feared he should be compelled 
to dismiss to the same inglorious destination. Nor is Missouri 
the only State where such unhappy transactions have taken 
place. 



DELIVERED IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY. 57 

Now, Mr. Moderator, I feel aggrieved for the honor of the 
denomination to which I belong, I feel aggrieved for the stained 
character, the wounded feelings, the blighted influence of these 
young servants of the Lord. Yes, sir, I feel for them ; for I 
have heard of the generous and noble nature of one of them, 
of his favorable influence upon his keepers and his miserable 
companions in confinement ; and, sir, I charge it to Abolition- 
ism that such young men have been betrayed into such 
grievous impropriety. I hold it the legitimate fruit of its 
own wretched extravagance. 

My brethren, unaffronted, will allow me to speak out, and 
say, not that it should tinge the cheek, but that it should rouse 
the judgment and awaken the conscience of every disciple of 
this creed, to be assured that his own Abolitionism has put 
forth a power, and wrought a deed in various sections of the 
country which, after regular judicial investigation, stands pro- 
nounced upon the records of this nation to be literally that 
very act which they themselves are wont to impute to other 
men as the consummation of all shame. 

Mr. Moderator, I forbear. I simply designed by this (per- 
adventure) rude suggestion to throw, if possible, some new 
light upon some of the many bearings of this solemn subject, 
that my brethren may reflect upon what seems not a little like 
hastening to form exaggerated conceptions of the guilt of 
others without a due consideration of the infelicities that lie 
at our own door ; not a little like the indiscretion of driving 
Providence from his own field, and taking his work into our 
hands. 



AIPIPHKOOT,, 



i. 

A series of Resolutions drawn up by a Committee composed of opposite 
parties is always a singularly mixed production. You can generally dis- 
cern the opposite parentage of its different parts. The member called to 
cast one vote upon the whole is often placed in a dilemma, and must choose 
between evils. In substance the Resolutions passed by the Assembly ex- 
press a sentiment and propose a measure. I gave an affirmative vote approv- 
ing decidedly the measure — the sentiment, only so far as it might be fairly 
interpreted to consist with the views I had expressed. 

The second Resolution wears a very singular face. You see the contest 
and the compromise of opposite principles. Is slaveholding sin 1 The par- 
ties divide upon this proposition. It looks very much as though one gets 
the sound while the other satisfies itself with the sense. " The holding of 
our fellow-men in the condition of slavery ... is an offense." The sound of 
this language clearly indicates that as a general rule to hold a slave is an 
offense. But this proposition is so largely qualified that the sense of the 
Resolution, as deduced from all the language employed to express it, would 
seem to call for an opposite interpretation. 

Suppose the words were these : Slaveholding is an offense except in 
ninety-nine cases out of an hundred — the proposition is positive in its 
form, but the general rule clearly negative. Suppose one should say : 
Government is an offense except where it is constructed with some regard 
to the good of the subject, and administered with some reference to the 
principles of justice. All men know that governments in general are so 
formed and administered. The general rule here also, though awkwardly 
expressed, is clearly negative. So in the case before us — before slavehold- 
ing is pronounced an offense, the broad qualifications of the subject, probably, 
cast the rule on the negative side. The Resolution excepts, first — Those 
cases where slaveholding is " unavoidable by the laws of the State." Now 
Southern laws very generally, if I mistake not, uniformly forbid emancipa- 



62 APPENDIX. 

tion. The sense of the Resolution therefore, in view of this exception, runs 
thus : The holding of a slave is not an offense unless you go beyond the 
limits of the country to find a case. The second exception respects those 
cases where slaveholding is unavoidable by " the obligations of guardianship" 
Some would affix a restricted — a legal signification to this term " guardian- 
ship." I hold every master the moral guardian of his slave. By reason of 
his personal unfitness for a state of freedom, the obligations of guardianship, 
as I have interpreted them, require the present exercise of the master's au- 
thority. Upon this construction of the language, (it may not be the general 
one,) here is another exception covering all the ground of a general rule. 
The third exception has reference to all those cases where slaveholding is 
unavoidable by " the demands of humanity." Clearly, if slaves in general are 
unprepared for freedom, humanity demands that they should be retained in 
a state of servitude for the present. Here you perceive is a third case, in 
the language of the exceptions, which covers the whole field of a general 
rule. Thus, in one view of the case at least, these exceptions are in reality 
the rule, embracing much the larger number of particulars. The language 
of the Resolution however would better express my sentiments (and I think 
its own) ordered thus : Slaveholding is not an offense, except when it 
violates those obligations of guardianship, those demands of humanity which 
pertain to the relation. This I judge to be the spirit and sentiment of the As- 
sembly. Having remained at Detroit one week after the adjournment, I 
know that an impression was made upon the community by the discussion 
decidedly favorable to moderate principles. No time was left, after argu- 
ment upon the merits of the case at large, to discuss the precise import of 
the terms and phrases of the Resolutions ; yet I have no reason at all to sup- 
pose that the discussion produced so different an effect upon the Assembly 
itself, that this body intended, by this language, to advance and take ground, 
which, the Assembly paused in the midst of the discussion to call to mind 
and expressly admit, no previous Assembly had ever taken. 

The measure I heartily voted for. " The whole subject of slavery as it 
exists in the Church" you will please to observe, the fourth Resolution ex- 
pressly refers "to the Sessions and Presbyteries to take such action thereon 
as, in their judgment, the laws of Christianity require."- Our Church suffers 
for the lack of rest on this subject, and of time to attend to other business. 
This action of the Assembly, I take it, will secure both. Should a church 
or Presbytery hereafter contemplate a memorial on this subject, what could 
it desire the Assembly to do ? To express its sentiments ? This action of 
the Assembly expressly affirms that this body has herein made such expres- 
sion of its sentiments on this subject as authorizes it hereafter to dismiss it 
to the Inferior Courts. To advise respecting the course to be pursued 1 
The Assembly reminds them that the Inferior Courts, as advised by the Con- 
stitution, are the proper tribunal to decide such questions, and therefore the 
Resolution refers all inquirers concerning proper action in the premises to 
their own judgment. 



APPENDIX. 63 



XI. 

The term " relation " I do not employ in a strict but general sense ; not 
simply to express those classifications of human conduct embraced by 
what are ordinarily termed " domestic relations," " public relations," &c, but 
any relative class of human actions. I retain all that is important to my 
purpose, the radical idea, viz. : man regularly acting toward man in a certain 
way. 

XXI. 

The statement touching the number and value of slaves manumitted, I 
derive principally from the publication of a friend remarkable for the accu- 
racy of his statistics. 

IV. 

The following table of the sum total of the contributions of the American 
Church, from the birth-day of her Christian liberality, was prepared at my 
request by one well advised on all this subject. It exhibits the date of the 
formation of each of the prominent Benevolent Societies of this country, 
together with the sum total of its contributions from the beginning : — 

1810. Am, Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions,. .. $5,547,090 

1813. Baptist Foreign Missionary Association, 1,183,834 

1816. American Bible Society, 3,500,000 

1816. " Education Society, 1,142,650 

1816. Presbyterian Board of Domestic Missions, 987,687 

1819. " " Education, 787,679 

1820. Methodist Missionary Society, 1,848,577 

1822. Episcopal Missionary Society, 942,458 

1824. American Sunday-school Union, 1,878,410 

1825. " Tract Society, 2,462,771 

1826. " Home Missionary Society, 1,897,259 

1828. " Seamen's Friend Society, 315,344 

1832. Baptist Home Missionary Association, 649,442 

1 833. Presbyterian Board of Foreign Missions, 960,934 

Publication, 397,473 

1 837. American and Foreign Bible Society, (Baptist,) 378,566 

1839. Foreign Evangelical Society, 196,675 

1848. American Protestant Society, 92,812 

American Colonization Society, 1 ,000,000 

Sum total $25,668,557 

Sum total of moneys surrendered to advance the cause of 

Emancipation, nearly $125,000,000 



Ftf 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

in mil ii it hi fi i i ii 



011 839 188 3 













'-it.' 




M x 



